§ Mr. RAPERasked the Secretary of State for Air whether His Majesty's Government is willing to adopt the three following general proposals with a view to assisting civil aviation: the guarantee by the State of interest to a large national air transport company, to which would be granted a monopoly of all British routes for a term of years; a mileage subsidy to all British aircraft with a British crew, no matter where flown; and a guaranteed load of mails to selected services at liberal rates; and, if not, would he state his reasons?
Captain GUESTThe proposals referred to by my hon. Friend have received very full and careful consideration. The proposal to establish a National Air Transport Company, with a monopoly of all British routes for a term of years, was not adopted, because it would preclude the growth of private initiative to the ultimate detriment of British civil air development. It would also presume the continuation of direct State assistance to air transport for an indefinite period. The reasons for the rejection of the other two proposals were stated in the Report by the Advisory Committee on Civil Aviation regarding Government Assistance for the Development of Civil Aviation (Cmd. 770 of 1920), and are as follow
Methods of affording Direct Assistance.—We have considered various methods by which a direct grant might be given and the basis upon which it should be assessed, and have approached the problem as involving the transport by air of passengers, goods, and mails.The question of the payment of grants on the basis of the number of miles covered, or of the number of hours flown, has been discussed, and we have had before us details of the French scheme in operation which is based on this principle.We have been forced to the conclusion that any such scheme of grants is fundamentally unsound, as the grants can be earned without any direct return to the State or com- 651W munity, either by way of experience gained, useful work performed, development of more efficient machines or establishment of regular air routes. We have, therefore, discarded the policy of giving grants on such a general basis.We have also considered the advisability of making the payment of a grant dependent upon the carriage of a guaranteed load of mails within a fixed maximum time, but have found the practical application of such a system too difficult to warrant its adoption. This method has the further grave defect that it might often involve the State in the payment for certain services which might not, in fact, have been performed.