Australia, Britain and the Empire Air Mail scheme, 1934-38

Journal of Transport History

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 91-106

  Edmonds, Leigh ^a  

^a NONE   (Australia)

Author keywords

Air mail; Australia; British empire; Empire Air Mail Scheme; Imperial Airways

Indexed keywords

COMMUNICATION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; TRANSPORTATION HISTORY; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

AUSTRALIA; UNITED KINGDOM;

EID: 0032748482     PISSN: 00225266     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.7227/TJTH.20.2.1     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. Daily News (Perth), 22 October 1925, p. 8.
2. West Australian, 8 September 1924, p. 6.
3. Ibid., 17 August 1926, p. 8.
4. Robin Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, 1919 to 1939 (1960), pp. 81-4.
5. Howard Robinson, Carrying British Masls Overseas (1964), p. 285.
6. Cabinet Decisions of 5 and 7 December 1928, Cabinet Minutes, CRS A2718, Volume 5 Part 2, National Australia Archives (hereafter NAA).
7. Robinson, Carrying British Mails Overseas, pp. 286-7.
8. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, p. 169.
9. John Gunn, The Defeat of Distance (St Lucia ,1985), p. 184.
10. 'Exchange of Notes between United Kingdom and Netherlands Governments respecting Air Mail Services to the East Indies and Australia', CRS A981, Treaties 402, NAA.
11. 'Draft of Speech by the Prime Minister at Inauguration of the Overseas Air Service, Archerfield Aerodrome, 10.12.34', CRS A461, item B314/1/5 Part 1, NAA.
12. Gunn, Defeat of Distance, pp. 237-8.
13. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, p. 85.
14. Cablegram from Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 22 October 1934, MP 131/1, item 192/119/258, NAA.
15. 'Empire Air Mail Scheme - a Scheme for the Carriage of all First Class Empire Mail by Air on existing Empire Air Routes', CP 402/1, Bundle 2, NAA.
16. Ibid.
17. Cablegrams from Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs of 19 and 20 December 1934, MP 131/1, item 192/119/258, NAA.
18. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, p. 85.
19. Telegram from British government to Prime Minister, Australia, 22 June 1938, CRS A2910, item 406/1/106 Part 13, NAA.
20. Leigh Edmonds, 'Commonwealth Cabinet Decisions relating to Civil Aviation, 1919-56', unpublished, pp. 16-41.
21. Minutes of Air Mail Conference held in the Prime Minister's Conference Room, Commonwealth Bank Building, Sydney, Monday 25 February 1935, CP 290/1O, Bundle 6, NAA.
22. Cablegram to Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 31 January 1936, CRS A2694, Volume 15 Part 1, NAA.
23. Cablegram from Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, London, to Prime Minister, 13 February 1936, CRS A461, file G314/1/5 Part 1, NAA.
24. Cablegram from Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, 14 February 1936, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 1, NAA.
25. Draft cable to Dr Page, 6 May 1936, CRS A461, file G314/1/5 Part 1.
26. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, p. 233.
27. Letter from Murphy to Secretary, Prime Minister's Department, enclosing information from Air Ministry, CRS A 461, item G314/1/5 Part 2, NAA.
28. Menzies to Parkhill, 23 July 1935, MP 131/1, item 192/119/258, NAA.
29. Cablegram from Page, 26 June 1936, CRS A461, file G314/1/5, Part 2, NAA.
30. Cablegram from Lyons to Page, 11 July 1936, CRS A461, file G314/1/5 Part 2, NAA.
31. Argus, 9 June 1936.
32. Extract from Cabinet minutes, 16 September 1936, CRS A461, item G3 14/1/5 Part 2, NAA,
33. Cabinet Minutes, 1 October 1936, CRS A2694, Volume 16 Part 1, NAA.
34. Cablegram to High Commissioner, London, 31 December 1936, MP 131/1, item 192/119/499, NAA.
35. Memorandum from Director General of Posts and Telegraphs to Secretary, Prime Minister's Department, 14 January 1935, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 1, NAA.
36. Cablegram from High Commissioner, London, 23 January 1937, MP 131/1, item 192/119/499, NAA.
37. Ibid.
38. Gunn, Defeat of Distance, p. 212.
39. Minute from Cotroller of Civil Aviation, 15 January 1935, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 1, NAA.
40. Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, (1983), pp. 1537.
41. Aircraft, April 1935, p. 5.
42. Leigh Edmonds, 'Edgar Johnston and the Empire Men: commonwealth government control of Australian civil aviation in the 1930s', in William F. Trimble (ed.), From Airships to Airbus: the history of civil and commercial aviation (Washington, D.C., 1995), pp. 271-2, and interview with Edgar Johnston, 20 May 1986.
43. 'Empire Air Mail Scheme: Conclusions of the Defence Department Representative on the Inter-departmental Committee', 12 December 1935, CRS A571, file 37/3483 Part 2, NAA.
44. Draft letter from Britain to Australia, July 1935, MP 131/1, item 192/119/258, NAA.
45. Ibid.
46. 'It was a very great advantage for us to be able to discuss the scheme so frankly and in such detail with Dr Page and Mr Menzies while they were in London, and those discussions have certainly played an important part in establishing a basis for co-operation', letter from Air Ministry to High Commissioner, London, 28 September 1936, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 2, NAA.
47. Cabinet decision 1625, 27 November 1935, CRS A2694, Volume 14 Part 3, NAA.
48. Cabinet agenda, 11 March 1935, MP 232/1, 192/119/258, NAA.
49. Gunn, Defeat of Distance, pp. 272-3.
50. 'Air Communications within and beyond Australia', report of interdepartmental committee, November 1932, CRS A2694, Volume 5, NAA.
51. Memorandum 'Overseas and Connecting Internal Air Services: Reasons justifying Duplication of Frequency', February 1936, CRS A2694, Volume 15 Part 2, NAA.
52. Minute, 'Air Services between the Netherlands East Indies and Australia', March 1937, CRS A461, C314/1/8 Part 2, NAA.
53. Cabinet decision 1986, 23 August 1937, CRS A2694, Volume 17 Part 3, NAA.
54. Letter from High Commissioner for UK, 1 June 1938, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 4, NAA; Neville Parnell and Trevor Boughton, Flypast: A Record of Aviation in Australia (Canberra, 1988), p. 162.
55. Letter from High Commissioner for UK, 1 June 1938, CRS A461, item G314/1/5 Part 4, NAA; Neville Parnell and Trevor Boughton, Flypast: A Record of Aviation in Australia (Canberra, 1988), p. 162.
56. John Stroud, Airliners of the 1930s (1980), p. 45; Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, p, 2916,
57. John Stroud, Airliners of the 1930s (1980), p. 45; Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, p, 2916,
58. Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 1938, p. 12.
59. 'Tentative Outline of Opening Ceremony, Flying Boat Service at Rose Bay on 4/8/1938', MP 347/1, item 34/101/57, NAA.
60. Cablegram to High Commissioner, London, 23 April 1937, CRS A461, item E314/1/3, NAA.
61. Submission from the Minister of Defence to the Prime Minister, CP 290/10, Bundle 6, NAA.
62. See, for example, comments in the Australian government letter to the British government, 23 April 1935, p. 3, CRS A461, G314/1/5, NAA.
63. Sydney Morning Herald, 3 February 1936.
64. Gunn, Defeat of Distance, p. 254.
65. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, pp. 203-39. See also Robert T. McCormack, 'Man with a mission: Oswald Pirow and South African Airways, 1933-39', Journal of African History, 20, 4 (1979), pp 543-57.
66. Higham, Britain's Imperial Air Routes, pp. 203-39. See also Robert T. McCormack, 'Man with a mission: Oswald Pirow and South African Airways, 1933-39', Journal of African History, 20, 4 (1979), pp 543-57.
67. Cablegram to High Commissioner, London, 31 December 1936, MP 131 1, item 192/119/499, NAA.
68. John Gunn, Challenging Horizons: Qantas, 1939-54 (St Lucia, 1987), pp. 42-51.