- As one who has devoted a great deal of
time and thought to air questions, I fully endorse all that Lord Elibank has said
in your columns about the need for centralising Civil Air Administration and adopting a cautious policy with regard to the administration of the subsidy.
The latter may seem small— in fact, according to Lord Elibank's comparative figures, it is small--but combined with
efficiency of machines and personnel it should be adequate to ensure the commencement of a British Air system second to none. We have always been the great carriers of the world
by sea, is there any reason why we should not be the same by air?
There is another point about this air subsidy which should not be lost sight. of. The more the subsidy is spread, the greater danger is there that the people will be tempted to invest their money in aviation concerns which are entirely. speculative. There are far too many of these and the greatest safeguard for the uninformed investor is the concentration of subsidies upon those operating companies which have either proved their worth or can slum definite evidence of a capacity to produce results.
I was particularly pleased to see Lord Elibank taking up the cudgels so effectively against those who have paid brief
visits to the United States and seen evidences of superficial achievements in air matters and come back to decry our own system.
If the economies of flying are studied it will be finny! America has lost very many millions in developing her civil aviation, and now we are informed by no less an authority than the American Federal Aviation Commission that " finan- cial disaster is in the making for a large part of the present air transport system." On the whole, I think our more cautious British Air Policy is wise. The Air Navigation Bill now before Parliament is on the right lines. It embodies very largely the good work of Lord Goren and his Committee and is a measure of outstanding importance to all those who desire the full development of Air Transport and Air Mail Services through- out the Empire. —Yours, &e., Mraimty
Howie of Commons, S.W. 1.
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