NEWS OF THE WEEK
HE announcement that the War Cabinet after far too prolonged delays has decided on the appointment of a Minister of Civil Aviation of Cabinet rank will be universally welcomed— except, perhaps, in the Air Ministry, where such a departure has been con- rer 5istently opposed. It is equally satisfactory to know that the appointment will be made in time for the new Minister to attend the international conference on civil- aviation in America in November. The suggestion that it would be enough to appoint ( an Under-Secretary for civil aviation, first to the Air Ministry and ' afterwards to the Ministry of Transport, indicated a disturbing under-estimate of the great part that will be played by civil aviation E in the near future. At the present time, when the construction of war
transport planes has been left exclusively to the Americans, we need
the assurance that at the least plans are being energetically pushed torward for the production of civil transport planes in this country, so that we may not be completely outclassed in the crucial post-war period. The Empire holds strong views on this. Mr. A. S. Drakeford, the Australian Minister for Air, made a speech in the House of Representatives last week which showed how seriously the Australian Government is giving its attention to the future of civil aviation. Australia would have favoured the creation of an international air authority to operate international trunk routes and eliminate unnecessary competition ; but if that cannot be attained—and the attitude of the United States seems to rule it out—then the Australian Government would urge the creation of a British Commonwealth of Nations air transport service to be operated by the United Kingdom, the Dominions and India jointly, with other nations that might be prepared to join in. (In this connexion, one thinks at once of Holland, with is East Indian interests, and France, which lies on the way to the East and has Cochin China as a likely Eastern terminus.) This is a proposal which the Australian Government intends to make at the Empire Air Conference, and in the meantime it thinks that no time should be Ion in developing a military transport service across the Pacific to the United States and Canada.
