The Empire and the Air
The assembling of a conference of the partners is the British Commonwealth on the future of air-transport is a necessary pre- liminary to larger discussions which will be needed if war in the air is not to continue in another form after peace is made. It is a question both of getting agreement on certain fundamental principles internationally—President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill are at one on " the freedom of the air," however that may be
defined—and of reaching some more specific agreements without
Which disastrous competition between various national air-lines will be inevitable. Most of all is this to be desired as between the
United States and the British Commonwealth—of which the most important member so far as air-transport is concerned is not Great Britain but Canada, by reason both of her geographical position and of the number and experience of the pilots and ground- staffs she is likely to have available after the war. In view of the coming negotiations with the United States it is well that the members of the British Commonwealth should clarify their own ideas and reach such agreement as will enable them to speak with a single voice. Both in America and here internal problems affecting the question of a monopoly on certain routes for existing companies or of operation by Governments or private corporations, have still to be decided. Agreement will not be easy, and it is fully time that discussions preliminary to agreement were entered on.
