Address: Before Royal, Society by Lt.-Col, Edwards London, Mar. 9.
The vital importance of India in the development of air-transport was stressed by Lieut-Colonel I. A. E, Edwards, chief technical adviser to the Department of Civil Aviation of the Air Ministry, in an address before the Royal Society of Arts} here to-day.
The climate of India, he said, was very suitable for aerial routes, especially for night-fying.
In the event of an amicable settlement with Persia, the route to India would probably' ran vid the Persian Gulf to Karachi, while a further route to feed India would be vid Moscow, Teheran. and Bushire.
From India to the Far East the route would probably run from Calcutta to Rangoon, thence to Singapore and Australia vid the Datch East Indies.
Possibly there would be a second line from Calcutta to Mandalay, Hanoi and Hongkong. This could be extended to Canton and Shanghat and there join up with the Tapaneso air-service.
Tt was even possible that a route might be established from Calcutta along the valleys of the River Bramaputra and the Yangtze to Karachi would clearly carry the balk of the traffic between Europe and the Far East. Thus Calcutta would assume vital importance as the aerial gateway to the Far East, second only to the big air-junction which must inevitably be established. in Syria or Palestine, Once x line was established from Cairo to South Africa, Lieut-Col. Edwands concluded, ft would bring trafic to India, especially in large quantities of bullion—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.