811.2300/5: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Kellogg)92

385. Your 430, October 9, 4 [5] p.m.

War Department contemplating flight around the world of five aeroplanes leaving the United States about April 1, 1924 and completing the circuit in the early autumn. It is proposed to divide the flight into five divisions, assigning one advance officer to each division of the route and a sixth advance officer to coordinate all the various divisions by travelling over the entire route. Address Note immediately to Foreign Office:

1.
Requesting permission for advance officers to cross British territory as outlined in proposed route;
2.
Requesting permission for flight to cross territory;
3.
Requesting permission for flight to land at points on British territory to be subsequently agreed upon;
4.
Requesting the waiver of any special restrictions in regard to aerial photography except as to fortifications or such other areas as may be specified. Personnel will conform strictly to restrictions imposed;
5.
Following are pertinent portions of tentative itinerary which would be of particular interest to British authorities: Seattle to Prince Rupert to Sitka (Alaska); Bangkok (Siam) to Rangoon to Akyab to Calcutta to Allahabad to Delhi to Multan to Karachi to Charbar (Persia); Bushire (Persia) to Bagdad to Aleppo (Syria); Paris to London to Hull to Kirkwall (Orkney Islands) to Thorshavn (Faroe Islands); Greenland to Rigolet to Mingan, to Quebec, to Montreal, to Keyport, New Jersey.

Tentative itinerary of entire flight is being forwarded to you by mail.93

Hughes
  1. The same telegram, mutatis mutandis and with appropriate changes of itinerary in point 5 of the note to be addressed to the Foreign Offices, was sent, on Dec. 22, 1923, to the Embassies in France (no. 474) and Germany (no. 107); the Legations in Austria (no. 23), Bulgaria (no. 17), China (no. 255), Denmark (no. 31), Hungary (no. 31), Persia (no. 34), Siam (no. 17), and Yugoslavia (no. 19); the High Commissioner in Turkey (no. 236) with the last sentence of the first paragraph changed to read, “In case you see no objection, communicate with appropriate Turkish authorities in following sense”; and on Dec 29 to the Legation in Rumania (no. 49). (File no. 811.2300/11.)
  2. See note of Dec. 19 to the British Chargé, supra.