HC Deb 07 March 1950 vol 472 cc274-84

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Mr. Hannan.]

10.0 p.m.

Squadron - Leader Kinghorn (Yarmouth)

The subject I want to bring to the attention of the House for this last half hour is something quite different from the series of election speeches we have been listening to in the last two days. in It is the question of civil aviation n our colonial territories. I am not bringing this subject to the fore in order to emphasise one little grumble about some mishap to one of our aircraft in a nationalised industry, or anything of that kind, but rather that we may at the beginning of this Session try to get some clear picture of the activities of civil aviation in our colonial territories.

I would say at the beginning that all the people who evidently, because of their presence here tonight, are interested in this topic, will agree with me that we can offer our congratulations to the new Minister here who is to answer the Debate, because I think many people agree with me that he has one of the most interesting jobs in any Government at the present time, as Minister of State with a roving commission for colonial affairs.

In the last Parliament a number of us on both sides of the House were extremely interested in matters pertaining to colonial affairs, and we seized every opportunity we could, in Adjournment Debates and so on, to bring up these matters for discussion in the House. I am very sorry to see one or two of my former colleagues are straining at the leash waiting for the next election to come along. However, that is because they hope that they may resume their seats here by winning to themselves the votes that, by only small majorities, deprived them of their seats and sent others here instead.

I hope the new Members will take an interest in these colonial matters. They are matters which interest us all, because this country sinks or swims with our colonial territories. However much we strive to increase exports here, and to get friendly relations with America, and so on, we shall not build up our prosperity without at least having also greater and greater wealth in the colonial territories—for the benefit of the inhabitants of those territories, because if they benefit so shall we, and that, in turn, will benefit all our allies in Western Europe. It is for the good of all nations in Western Europe that we should see from day to day production going on in the colonial territories, and see them prospering.

There are two aspects, as I see it, which are of extreme importance. One is commercial and industrial development. It is helpful to us and to our allies if there is increased production of ore in Northern Rhodesia or of diamonds in Tanganyika. It is helpful to all of the Western Union peoples if wealth is increased from those territories. Secondly, we have to bear in mind the question of defence, and the defence of a focal point like Africa is just as essential in these modern days as, say, the defence of the Atlantic coasts, or the readiness of our fighters at the bases in Southern England against a potential enemy. Therefore, in this question of defence, it is vital that we in this House should from time to time know what is going on in air developments in our colonial territories.

I hold that in these modern days in our vast Empire the number one priority should be transport. We have seen in our discussions on the groundnut scheme and other developments that what we sadly lacked, through neglect in the old days, was good transport in our colonial territories. In these modern days, when the "Comet" can fly from this city and reach the shores of North Africa in two and a half hours—twice as fast as the present air liners that do that trip regularly—it is of first-class importance that we see that such developments take the right lines. If we want any justification for what I have just said, I should like to draw the attention of the Minister and the House to a statement in "The Times" yesterday. It is under the heading, "Russian Development of Air Network." The sub-heading is "Communist 'Life Artery'." It says: In its fourteenth report, issued yesterday, the International Committee for the Study of European Questions gives details of the air fleet which, it says, Russia is building to act as the "life artery" of the Communist empire which she proposes to set up. The report says that it became apparent to the Politburo that even a double-track trans-Siberian railway would not suffice to assure the commercial and military communications of the Communist bloc from the Oder to the Pacific. It was then decided that most of the liaison should be done by air, and that an aeronautical organization of a power and importance hitherto unknown should be constituted. This organization, says the report, is now in full development, and is called the Aeroflot, and its network covers more than 50,000 miles. The committee believes that aircraft production in Russia is now 3,000 to 3,500 a month. That is the way the Russians are looking at their empire which has developed only in the last few years. If we are to develop our Empire as it should be, that is probably a good model to follow. We heard in the last Parliament that practically each of our colonial territories has been put on a ten-year development basis. By this time most of those schemes should be well under way. I hope that the Minister may be able to tell us how the development of civil aviation, in particular, has progressed with the general development of these ten-year plans.

In a document published by the Colonial Office, "The Colonial Empire (1947–48)," paragraph 397 states: Steady progress is being made in the pro- vision of radio aids to navigation, airfield equipment, terminal buildings and other ground organisation essential for the efficient and safe operation of air services. Arrangements have been made for the joint use of certain airfields for both civil and R.A.F. purposes. Experts from the Ministry of Civil Aviation have now visited most colonial areas to advise on the facilities needed and new airfields to comply with international standards are under construction at Singapore and at Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. Consideration is being given to the provision of a new airport at Hong Kong. It would be interesting to know what developments have now taken place.

My next point is on defence. I will not say much about this subject tonight because I should like to deal with it further during the defence Debates in the course of the next week or two. We have aerodromes in certain vital places in our colonial territories with experienced personnel handling civil aircraft every day, or at least several times a week, and it seems to me that from the defence point of view alone, if not from the commercial point of view, we should carry on with these aerodromes and experienced personnel and, of course, with the best possible types of aircraft.

I am thinking in particular of Africa which is so important a factor in the defence of Western democracy. We know from what happened during the war that our American friends were appalled by the lack of transport in West Africa. I hope that if ever in the future there is a war, we shall not have to face the same difficulties with aviation. B.O.A.C. use certain aerodromes and other airlines use other aerodromes which come within our jurisdiction, and I sometimes wonder whether there is a close liaison between the Colonial Office and these organisations. I believe that there is.

We had a Debate last year in which we were told that B.O.A.C. had decided to stop using Malta and were to use Castel Benito. Later, I went to Castel Benito, and I realised that, fortunately, from the defence point of view we had an extremely good aerodrome in that place. If one day B.O.A.C. change their mind and leave Castel Benito, whose responsibility is it to see that Castel Benito has a serviceable aerodrome for any activities that may be necessary for defence purposes on the North Coast of Africa? I should like to know if there is working co-operation.

Finally, I have a couple of simple questions which I should like to ask the Minister. Have we finished with the old war-time aircraft on the airlines of our Colonial Territories? Are they still running with war-time "Dakotas," and that kind of thing, or have they now got newer aircraft in operation? If they have, well and good. If not, what new types are expected to come in to make these communications more up-to-date than they were. If my right hon. Friend could sketch in the general picture, and convey to us that civil aviation lacks nothing in our Colonial Territories, and tell us that he is satisfied with the development that is going on, I imagine we could go away from the House tonight happy among ourselves.

10.11 p.m.

Mr. Follick (Loughborough)

As I have travelled extensively through our Colonies, I should like to give certain assurances to my hon. and gallant Friend about some of our colonial airline developments. Commencing in North Africa, we have Blands Airline that serves all the Gibraltar area and Tangiers, the East African Airlines, and the Central African Airlines right down to South African Airlines. We are well covered right through Africa with our airlines. Then in the West Indies there are the Bahamian services run by Bahamian Airlines.

While on the subject of Africa. I should like to bring out one point which I think is well worth studying, and that is the using of Tristan da Cunha as a very important strategic airline base between South Africa and South America: it is almost equidistant between Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro. Also, something should be done so as to link up Tristan da Cunha with St. Helena, Ascension and West Africa. Those are things that ought to be taken very seriously into consideration, not only from the point of view of transport but from the point of view of colonial development and of strategy. There is also a good link up between Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar. I think there are three planes a day doing that. There is also a good service between Kongwa and Dar-es-Salaam.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd (Mid-Bedfordshire)

On one groundnut a day?

Mr. Follick

It is not meant for groundnuts: it is meant as part of the service. In fact, when I had to meet the Aga Khan in Dar-es-Salaam I went through from Kongwa direct in about two and a half hours. In Central Africa they are building a base for flying-boats on Lake Victoria, and even building a hotel alongside for the reception of passengers who prefer flying-boats to ordinary airliners. Cyprus Airlines run a very good service between the Levantine ports, Alexandria and Cairo—which is not really a port—right up to Athens. They are well served there. That is also colonial development, because Cyprus is a Colony.

In these few minutes I have sought to give an insight into what we are doing in colonial development, and into what we are able to do, if we are to make use of the very important strategic points that we have between America and Africa. That may be very important, because, in a future war, Africa may be more important even than Europe was in the last war. We must therefore develop these strategic points which at the present time are not being used at all. I should like to mention one last thing, to show the importance of colonial air development, and that is the case of Port Moresby. In the centre of New Guinea there is a gold mine which could not have been worked without aviation. Machinery was taken there by air, and they bring out the gold product from the mine right down to Port Moresby. Those are just a few instances which may be helpful to the House.

10.15 p.m.

Air-Commodore Harvey (Macclesfield)

I shall detain the House for only a few minutes, and I apologise for speaking twice on the same day. A company was formed in Hong Kong three or four years ago, known as Hong Kong Airways, in which B.O.A.C. had a majority holding. We were unfortunate not to have a Debate in the last Parliament on the £9,500,000 lost by B.O.A.C. and the other two air corporations. I understand that B.O.A.C. have sold their interest to the local firm of Jardine Matheson. I understand that it lost £35,000 before it put an aeroplane in the air, and has continued to lose money annually. We are not told how much, because we do not get a consolidated balance-sheet.

I also understand that the Treasury eventually said that they would not finance it any more, and that the interest was sold out to Jardine Matheson. I should like to know for how much, because we as taxpayers will have to foot the bill. The House is entitled to know something about it. This is just the sort of thing where a State corporation meddles in affairs 8,000 miles away which would be far better run by local enterprise. I ask the Minister to give us some information on this point, and at an early date to give further information on these other colonial subsidiaries.

10.18 p.m.

The Minister of State for Colonial Affairs (Mr. John Dugdale)

I am afraid that I cannot state off-hand the exact amount for which this company was sold. It is perfectly correct that it has been sold to a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson and is privately owned. As I have said, I cannot give the exact sum.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

Happy days for someone.

Mr. Dugdale

I must ask the indulgence of the House, in so far as I have held this office for only 48 hours and cannot therefore speak with very great authority. The story I have to tell is, I think, a good one. I wish to say immediately that neither the Secretary of State nor myself can claim any credit whatever for it. The credit is due to past Secretaries of State, and in particular to the late Secretary of State, as it was one of the pieces of work he did which contributed to make his administration one of the best we have known in the history of Colonial affairs. It was unfortunate that his administration was cut short by the circumstances of the General Election.

During the past four years there has been a very big development of civil aviation. Broadly, civil aviation in the Colonies is of two kinds. In the first place, there are the trunk lines run mainly by B.O.A.C. and also by a certain number of private firms. Secondly, there are the local services set up in each Colony. Each Colony can set up its own local services, deciding for itself whether it will do so or not.

I was asked whether there is good liaison. There is a Joint Standing Committee with representatives of the Colonial Office and the Ministry of Civil Aviation that meets as often as required, and the colonial directors of Civil Aviation who happen to be in the country at the time are always invited to participate in its deliberations. The local services get the benefit of advice, especially technical advice, which they are bound to be in need of, from B.O.A.C. from time to time. There is also a Colonial Civil Aviation Service which was formed fairly recently and is under the Colonial Office. It consists of people who are recruited as a result of their special experience on aviation matters. Some may have come from the Ministry itself and some from the Services, men who have served either in the Air Force or in the Fleet Air Arm, who are transferred after their period of service to this work. There is a considerable degree of liaison.

I was asked a number of questions by my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Mr. Follick). He not only asked me a number of questions, but he saved me a great deal of trouble by telling me of the excellent services which are provided by civil aviation in the various Colonies. One interesting point he raised was in connection with Tristan da Cunha. It is considered to be too far from South Africa and from South America to use as a staging point for the existing types of aircraft. In any case, I am informed it is a mountainous country and a very small island.

Mr. Follick

I have been there, and it is not a mountainous country at all.

Mr. Dugdale

My information is that there are mountains there and the mountains make difficulties for landing. In any case, it is so small that even if there were no mountains landing would be difficult and it would be difficult to get adequate landing facilities.

During the past four years there has been a remarkable development of civil aviation within the Colonies. If I may give two illustrations, I would mention that though begun only in 1947, West African Airways in the year 1948–49 flew a distance of no less than one and a quarter million miles. East African Airways, which started before that, in 1946 flew 581,000 miles but in the year 1948–49 that figure rose to 1,600,000. I think, therefore, it can be said quite fairly that these services do show considerable developments during the last few years.

A question was asked by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Great Yarmouth (Squadron-Leader Kinghorn) about Castel Benito. That is a territory for which the Colonial Office is not responsible. As regards the other question about the types of aircraft used by B.O.A.C., that is the responsibility of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and does not come under the Colonial Office. There has been a very striking development in civil aviation in the Colonies during the past years, and it is a development of which the former Secretary of State and the Under-Secretary of State can be very proud. I hope it will continue under the new administration, until we have such a network of civil aviation throughout our Colonies that it will compare very favourably with any other Empire or any other large territory in the world.

10.23 p.m.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd (Mid-Bedfordshire)

I should like to associate myself and also the Opposition with the welcome given to the right hon. Gentleman the Minister of State for the Colonies on taking up his new and very responsible occupation. In the last Parliament we always tried as far as possible to leave Colonial affairs outside partisan discussion and to treat them on a broad imperial level, for many of the problems with which the right hon. Gentleman will have to deal in the next few months would be just the same whichever party was in power.

I should like to ask one particular question. It was suggested to him that there should be the closest possible liaison between the two monopoly Corporations and the Colonial Office. Naturally we are in favour of the closest association between the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Colonial Office, but we do not want that close co-operation to be such that the many private firms will have no part to play in Colonial air development or are not given an opportunity to play it. I would ask the right hon. Gentleman on the very morrow of his assumption of the important tasks which he has to do, to look personally into what happened in the last few years, and to turn his mind in particular to Nigeria, where a highly profitable contract was desired by the Nigerian Government and a British private firm known as Skyways Limited, but was, in fact refused, because the work was given, at a higher price and at a loss to our taxpayers, to a monopoly Corporation. Would the right hon. Gentleman see that in the development of Colonial civil airways, on which all parties are united, the many private undertakings, who have here a fruitful chance of co-operation with the State, are given the fullest opportunity to give this service.

10.25 p.m.

Mr. Geoffrey Cooper (Middlesbrough, West)

As the Minister has not quite used up all his time in answering this Debate, I should like in the few moments that are left to ask him to focus his attention particularly on the development in the West Indies. Representations were made to me over the last 18 months by more than one merchant who had interests in the West Indies. It was represented to me that it was extremely difficult to develop both ways between the West Indies and this country without adequate air services. In fact, it was pointed out that letters even by air mail sometimes took as much as 15, 18 and 20 days to reach this country, sometimes even longer.

It is obvious that if a firm in this country is quoting for a contract for some work in the West Indies and finds that communications take so long to reach the country, they may well lose the opportunity of submitting their tender, because of the delay in comparison with the time taken for letters to reach the United States. Therefore the development taking place in the Carribean area through the Colonial Development Co-operation, and it seems to me the Colonial corporation itself, is not really helped by the inadequate air services extended to that part of our Colonial territory.

I would therefore ask that in the near future the Minister will look particularly into the air transport facilities in the West Indian area. We know that some islands are not served at all adequately either by sea or by air transport. We cannot hope to get adequate development of the Colonies unless transport facilities are really adequate to do the task with which they are concerned.

Question put, and agreed to.

Adjourned accordingly at Twenty-eight Minutes past Ten o'Clock.