§ 76. Mr. WAKEFIELDasked the Under-Secretary of State for Air whether he is 537 aware that the recently published summer programme of Railway Air Services, of which the Government-subsidised company of Imperial Airways, Limited, and the railway companies are shareholders, propose new routes not previously operated by this concern but hitherto by independent smaller companies; whether the Air Ministry will check this uneconomic competition by railway and Government interests in the light of the need for encouraging enterprise by small concerns; whether the Air Ministry was approached by Railway Air Services before this programme was adopted; and, if so, what reply the Air Ministry gave to these proposals?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for AIR (Sir Philip Sassoon)The answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative; the programme of the services proposed to be operated this summer by Railway Air Services, Limited, was received by the Air Ministry in the normal course of circulation. As regards the second part, my Noble Friend has no reason to suppose that the new services are contrary to the public interest, but in any case he has at present no power to veto any proposed air service in this country, nor can he prejudge any questions of general policy which may require consideration in the light of the report of the Maybury Committee. As regards the third and last parts of the question, it will be seen from what is stated above that the company were under no obligation to approach the Air Ministry, and they did not in fact do so.