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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0540.PDF
••-.:•• '•'.••'.. <of travel than by air, the business man would have to -•;."•;.•.' leave London by the night train, arriving at Paris in ' the early hours of the morning, after a most uncom- ••"/'• fortable journey. If he were fortunate, he might get • through his business in the forenoon and catch the •\ afternoon boat-train back, arriving in London late in the evening, having spent some twenty hours in travelling in misery. Now he can travel comfortably by air and car, and his whole time of absence from town is about terf hours. We certainly look to such services as these to carry their own lesson to the business community, and thus to accomplish much good work of a missionary character, work that will do more to popularise aerial travel and to stabilise the industry than any amount of printed propaganda. If actual progress in commercial avia- tion is slower than those who are engaged the Air m ^s development would like, there are nevertheless signs that the appreciation of its possibilities is spreading. As an example, at the Inter-Parliamentary Commercial Conference, held in Paris last week, Mr. Kenneth Murchison, M.P., gave an address on " The Effect of Aerial Transport on International Commercial Relations," in the course of which he pointed out that the future of trade with such countries as Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Roumania, • Hungary and Jugo-Slavia would largely depend upon the rapidity with which representatives of nations like France and Great Britain, who were in a position to 9upply these new countries with manufactured goods, could reaeh them and negotiate with them for the sale of manufactured articles in exchange for whatever raw materials they might be prepared to» •export. He further pointed out that when Central Europe settled down to peace it would be of the Utmost importance that regular aerial communica- tions should be first established with success between those parts of the world where it was most necessary to improve commercial relations. >* Undoubtedly this is sound doctrine, and should be translated into actuality with the least possible •delay. The question that has to be settled is that of how best to set about the preliminaries. It is mani- festly impossible for private enterprise to carry out the surveys of ground and conditions essential to the creation of services to and from the most vital points. This is the duty of the Government a,nd the Air Ministry. There should be no particular difficulty or expense in it. It is for the consular service to indicate where trade conditions are most favourable, and then for the Air Ministry to assist by advice and information, which it can give through the knowledge of local conditions obtained by the intelligence branch. We do not suggest that the services should be created and maintained with grants from public funds, but we do think that there is no time to be lost in the collection and collation of the reports which will be necessary to scheming out the details. We know that a great deal of pre- liminary work has been done in outlying quarters of the world, and are, therefore, not disposed to ask for too much. The new States of Central. Europe, however, have so many trade potentialities that we cannot afford to neglect them as possible markets for our products, and, moreover, it is certain that if we do not exploit them our late enemies will. That alone should be, sufficient stimulus to special exertion. MAY 20, 1920 It is stated that within the. next two The or three months considerable extensions Extension wj^ ^e ma(je m the aerial mail service Air Mails *° Paris. The services at present running have been fairly well patronised by the,general public, though the want of publicity on the part of the postal authorities has kept down their success considerably. There is very little doubt that if these facilities had been better advertised than they , have been much more advantage would have been taken of them. However, that is by the way. The changes recently carried out are, it is understood, intended as a test, and, if the success anticipated is met with, it is proposed to carry out a complete reorganisation of the service. Tenders will be invited, as was recently done in the case of the air mail to Holland, and a very considerable extension will take place. The whole thing turns on the amount of public patronage which may be forthcoming, but we may say at once that unless a proper amount of publicity is given to the postal facilities which these services afford, it is scarely likely the public will'do its part to ensure their success. Obviously, the business com- munity cannot be expected to avail itself of services of which it has never even heard except in the most detached and, casual way. What the Post Office seems to lack is a good publicity man. The proposal to ask for tenders for the extended services may have an effect on the charges for the carriage of mails and passengers. Up to quite recently the London-Paris service was in the hands of two firms, the Airco enterprise and Messrs. Handley Page ; but a short while since Messrs. Instones, Ltd., entered into competition, with machines capable of carrying 11 passengers or ij tons of goods. The effect of the competition has been that fares by aeroplane between the two capitals have already been slightly reduced, and it is obvious that if the new services are made the subject of competitive tender, the Post Office and the travelling public will get at least, some slight amount of benefit. In connection with this subject of open tenders, it may be said that it is to be hoped the Post Office will think better of certain of the • conditions laid down for the carrying out of the service' between London and the Hague, upon which we com- mented at the time they were announced. The tenders for that service had to be in by Saturday last, but nothing has as yet transpired as to whether or not any of the aerial transport firms thought it good enough to compete in the circumstances, or, if they did, what terms they proposed to safeguard themselves against the drastic official requirements laid down in the conditions of the Post Office announce- ment. Unless these have been very much modified in the meantime, we are afraid we cannot see much progress being made towards the consummation of a regular mail service. • " j " . - Among the recent visitors to London, A Drag W]1O jjave come over to discuss various Development problems connected with reconstruction after the War, is M. Flandin, the French Under-Secretary for Air, who came to London last week to talk over matters relating to the Franco British Air Convention with the Air Ministry. It is understood that one of the principal subjects dis- cussed was the check placed on development by the present attitude of the various European Govern- ments, who insist that only pilots of their own respective nationality shall carry mails across their 540
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