Mr. R. Duckworthasked the Postmaster-General the approximate times for the carriage of air mails in view of the accelerated services about to be introduced by Imperial Airways, Limited, to Africa, India and Australia, and the average time which has to be added in each case to the transit of any letter in view of the absence of any definite time of posting in this country?
§ Major TryonUnder the accelerated time tables of the Empire air services which are about to be introduced, the scheduled times of air transmission from Southampton will be about 2 days to Khartoum, 2½ days to Kisumu, 4½ days to Durban, 2½ days to Karachi, 3½ days to Calcutta and 9½ days to Brisbane.
So far as the second part of the question is concerned, I informed my hon. Friend in reply to his question of 3rd March that I had already published latest times of posting in the case of one of the weekly services to South Africa, and I have since done so in the case of one of the weekly services to India. As and when further experience of the incidence of traffic in relation to aircraft capacity allows, I hope to be in a position to publish similar information in regard to the remaining air services available each week to the countries in question. Latest times of posting for both the weekly services to Australia, to which country only letters prepaid at a special air postage rate are at present conveyed by air, continue to be published.