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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1543.PDF
AUGUST 8TH, 1946 FLIGHT Civil Aviation Bill Qoes Through : CIVIL AVIATION British Central American Service? Cutting %. Red Tape COMMONS REJECTS LORDS9 AMENDMENT THE proposed House of Lords' amendment to the CivilAviation Bill, creating a fourth Corporation to controlScottish services, caused more trouble than was ex-pected when it was considered in the House of Commons. The Parliamentary Secretary asked that the House should disagreewith the amendment, and in support of this he used some cogent arguments. He pointed out that the plans already in the mind of theMinister were very extensive, and provided Scotland with a share of air transport in greater proportion to population thanany other area. He said that he was at a loss to understand the reason for the Scottish desire to dissociate herself fromthe British European Airways Corporation, for more harm than good would be the result. The creation of a separateScottish Corporation, with Scottish capital and limited to Scottish executives and personnel, would automatically createin British European Airways an English, Welsh and Northern Ireland Corporation, and if the argument was drawn to itslogical conclusion Scotsmen would not be eligible for employ- ment, nor would Scotland have any financial interest in B.E.A.Mr. Thomas commented that the proposed Scottish Corpora- tion would be nothing more than a '' stooge '' of this Cor-poration. The Opposition complained that Eire had been granted amajority share in a combined company, whereas Scotland, with its very close association with England, especially duringthe war years, was being deprived of any independent control whatsoever. In view of the status of Eire, this argument wasnot understood. An important point was raised by Col. Hutchison for theOpposition, when he suggested that the Scottish Advisory Council should have a seat not only on the B.E.A. Corpora-tion but also on B.O.A.C., for Scottish interests were con- fined not only to Europe. There was a continuous complaintfrom the Opposition that nothing whatsoever was mentioned iu the terms of the Bill for the provision of the Scottish Division and Advisory Council, uhiei. had been only verballypromised by the Minister. The Lord President of the Council replied that the absence of such provision would allow theMinister far more scope for elasticity iu the administration. Mr. Morrison compared the terms of the amendment withthe promises which had been made by the Minister—from which the conclusion was drawn that the only benefit to bederived from a separate Corporation would be the satisfying of Scottish national pride. As Sir Thomas Moore had alreadyobserved, Scottish sentiment was partly behind the amend- ment from the House of Lords; unless the strength o£ thissentiment was realized, due importance would not be given to the amendment. The amendment was rejected by the Com-mons in ratio of 227 to 104 votes, and the Bill was returned to the Lords. On Wednesday of last week the Lords reconsidered thematter. As Lord Cranborne remarked, the issue was im- portant, but not sufficiently so to invite a definite clash•between the two Houses. The Lords carried the motion that this House did not insist on the amendment with which theCommons had disagreed. OUR OWN MODIFICATIONS' B.O.A.C. have fitted one of their Constellation aircraft withthe petrol injection system, and are now awaiting com- pletion of the other modifications to try out this aircraft beforeit goes into service. The thirty or forty modifications which have been ordered by the American C.A.B. will probably takethree or four weeks to complete. At the end of that time the Constellations will be put into full service on the trans-Atlanticroute. The findings of the enquiry into the crash in Pennsylvaniahave not yet been " promulgated," but it may be assumed from this latest announcement by the C.A.B. that the crash was not^used by engine trouble. It is understood that the modifica- j0n to the pressurization system has not yet been completed,but it is the intention of B.O.A.C. to reopen the service without using this equipment. IN THE WEST INDIES THE institution of a four-year Canadian airline service-*• between Montreal, Bermuda, the Bahamas; Jamaica and Trinidad, has been approved by the Bermudian legislativecouncil. - This is being opened as "a Commonwealth responsibility." Meanwhile, the Bahamas legislature has alsoapproved a proposal resulting from the recent Anglo-American conference—that reciprocal flying rights should be waivedfor three years, as far as Canada is concerned, provided that a direct Canadian service is operated each year betweenMontreal and Nassau. The legislature has consequently approved the purchase of all equipment at Oakes airfield, which will subsequently become a civil terminal. This airfieldwas laid out during the war for training and Atlantic delivery flying. BY HALTON TO CAIRO T^ALKIRK, the first of the twelve Handley Page Halton air-J- craft ordered by B.O.A.C., left London Airport last Thurs- day on a proving flight to Cairo. Capt. W. G. Buchanan, oneof B.O.A.C.'s million-mile pilots, is in charge of the aircraft, which will be calling at Algiers and Castel Benito. As an-nounced in Flight two weeks ago, Haltons will be used on the West African, Cairo and Indian services, and B.O.A.C. expectthe first service to Cairo to start before the end of this month. LESS RED TAPE THE total number of forms to be completed before a ladenaircraft is permitted to take off has reached such dimen- sions that P.I.C.A.O. has made recommendations lor asubstantial reduction of these. The proposal was immediately endorsed by the air linesthrough I.A.T.A., which has announced that active support will be forthcoming. The present system of passports and vizas is complicatedand cumbersome, whilst the manifest and loading returns for each flight require so much paper work that on one route aloneit is known that the aircraft captain signs or initials exactly 527 documents for his aircraft and cargo. Red tape is the direct cause of great losses in time andmoney, and P.I.C.A.O. will do well in seeking to remove these encumbrances to passengers and ciews.
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