On Saturday last the terms of the agreement between the
Government and the new British, Foreign and Colonial Corporation, providing for the formation of the Imperial Air Transport Company, were published. On the whole, the agreement seems to be a thoroughly sound one, by which there is considerable hope of an extensive and trustworthy commercial air service being set up and a large mercantile air reserve secured for the Government at the minimum of cost to the taxpayer. The Government will pay a subsidy amounting in all to a million pounds to the Company in instalments over a period of ten years. In consideration of this, the Com- pany agree to establish an efficient air service, to use British-built and regiStered aircraft, to charge ordinary commercial rates to the public, to try experimental types of civil aircraft for the Government, and to hold their whole organization at the Government's disposal in times of national emergency. The Company will now, we presume, raise the rest of their million pounds share capital, of which the Corporation have already guaranteed half. It is not, we believe, anticipated that they will have difficulty in doing so. Thus, the work which Sir Samuel Hoare began just over a year ago has come to completion, and the Air Minister has had the satisfaction of finishing his task during his term of office.
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