711.4127/25

The Department of State to the British Embassy

Memorandum

The Department has received the British Embassy’s memorandum of February 7, regarding the reciprocal issuance of pilots’ licenses and the mutual recognition of air-worthiness certificates by Great Britain and the United States, and the views advanced therein have been given careful consideration by the appropriate authorities of this Government.

This Government notes the British Embassy’s statement that it regards as purely arbitrary the connection between the two closely related questions of the reciprocal issuance of pilots’ licenses and the mutual recognition of air-worthiness certificates by Great Britain and [Page 525] the United States. The Department takes this occasion to reiterate the suggestion made in its note of January 22, 1929, regarding the desirability of effecting an agreement which shall include both the question of pilots’ licenses and that of air-worthiness certificates and which shall extend to the United States and its possessions on the one hand, and on the other to Great Britain and Northern Ireland, British Dominions (excepting the Irish Free State and Canada) and to the British oversea possessions. In this connection, there is enclosed the draft text of an agreement now under discussion between the United States and the Government of Canada8 which it is believed might serve as a useful model for a similar agreement between the United States and the British Empire as a whole (excepting the Irish Free State and Canada with whom the United States maintains direct diplomatic relations). It may be added that an agreement on the basis of the enclosed draft is being proposed to the Irish Free State and that it is intended to make similar proposals to other nations.

It is hoped that the Embassy will bring the substance of this draft agreement to the attention of the appropriate British authorities with a view to advancing the previous discussions which have taken place upon the subject.

  1. Draft text not printed.