Does the slogan " trade, not aid " really mean
anything to Americans ? The recent example of the contract for electrical machinery which was not given to the British firm that provided the lowest bid has left a nasty taste even in the mouth, of Colonel McCormick, of Chicago. Now there is the case of the Comet III, which is not yet built but which Pan American Airways are anxious to buy provided the British certificate of airworthiness is acceptable to the American Civil Aeronautics Authority. But in spite of a reciprocal agreement on the validity of each authority's certifi- cates new American difficulties have appeared about the certificate which will certainly be given to the Comet III by the British Air Registration Board. The reason is that the Americans have no experience of turbine engines and will require to test the machines themselves, for which purpose they need two aircraft of the new design for about eighteen months. Pan American will naturally not want to buy a British pig in an American poke, and the effect of the obstruc- tion may even be to bar the Comet III from the American market. It is a position which ought to be resolved easily. It is possible for the American Civil Aeronautics Authority to remove the growing suspicion that it is obstruc- ting the introduction of the best and fastest passenger machines into the American market. If that suspicion is unfounded, the C.A.A. can simply demonstrate the fact by moving a little faster:
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