Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, General; the United Nations, Volume I

711.0027/9–1946: Circular telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Officers ⁶⁷

Washington, September 19, 1946.

Unless you perceive objection you may bring to attention of Govt to which you are accredited the following press statement released Sept 19:

“The Department of State today released the following text of a joint statement relating to the international air transport policy of the US and Brit Govts. The statement also is being released simultaneously by the Brit Govt:

1. During the visit of United States aviation officials to the exhibition of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors in London between September 11 and 15, 1946, the opportunity was taken to arrange informal discussions with the Minister of Civil Aviation and representatives of the Ministry and the Foreign Office.⁶⁸

2. The discussions centered on developments in the field of international air transport since the conclusion of the United States-United Kingdom Air Transport Agreement at Bermuda on February 11, 1946.

3. Both parties are in accord that experience since the Bermuda agreement has demonstrated that the principles enunciated in that agreement are sound and provide, in their view, a reliable basis for the orderly development and expansion of International Air Transport. They believe that these principles provide the basis for a multilateral international agreement of the type that their representatives at the meeting of the PICAO Assembly in May advocated as being in the interests of international air transport.

4. Consequently, both parties believe that in negotiating any new bilateral agreements with other countries, they should follow the basic principles agreed at Bermuda, including particularly:

(a) fair and equal opportunity to operate air services on international routes and the creation of machinery to obviate unfair competition by unjustifiable increases of frequencies or capacity;

(b) the elimination of formulae for the predetermination of frequencies or capacity or of any arbitrary division of air traffic between countries and their national airlines;

(c) the adjustment of Fifth Freedom traffic with regard to:

(1) traffic requirements between the country of origin and the countries of destination

(2) the requirements of through airline operation, and

(3) the traffic requirements of the area through which the airline passes after taking account of local and regional services.

5. The representatives of the two countries were united in the belief that until a multilateral agreement should be adopted, the Bermuda type of agreement represents the best form of approach to the problem of interim bilateral agreements.

6. In furtherance of the foregoing principles each government is prepared upon the request of any other government with which it has already concluded a bilateral air transport agreement that is not deemed to be in accordance with those principles, to make such adjustments as may be found to be necessary.

7. Arrangements have been completed for setting up the machinery envisaged in the Bermuda conversations for continuous consultation and exchange of views between the two countries on civil aviation problems. Mr. Laurence Vass has been appointed as representative of the Civil Aeronautics Board with the Ministry of Civil Aviation in London. Mr. Nigel Bicknell has been appointed as representative of the Ministry of Civil Aviation with the Civil Aeronautics Board in Washington.

The United States representatives at the discussions included: Mr. James M. Landis, Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board; Mr. William A.M. Burden, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Air; Mr. Garrison Norton, Director of the Office of Transport and Communications Policy of the Department of State; Mr. George A. Brownell, Personal Representative of the President to the Middle East and India in connection with air agreements; Mr. Livingston Satterthwaite, Civil Air Attaché of the United States Embassy in London.

The United Kingdom representatives included Lord Winster, Minister for Civil Aviation; Mr. Ivor Thomas, Parliamentary Secretary; Sir Henry Self, Permanent Secretary, and Mr. Peter Masefield, Civil Air Attaché at the British Embassy in Washington.”

Clayton

67. Page 5 to this circular telegram reads: “The attached circular telegram should be transmitted to the following Missions: Ankara, Ascuncion, Athens, Baghdad, Beirut, Bangkok, Bern, Bogota, Brussels, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Canberra, Caracas, Ciudad Trujillo, Copenhagen, Damascus, Dublin, Habana, Helsinki, Jidda, La Paz, Lima, Lisbon, Madrid, Manila, Mexico, D.F., Montevideo, Monrovia, Moscow, Nanking, New Delhi, Ottawa, Oslo, Paris, Port au Prince, Praha, Pretoria, Quito, Reykjavik, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, San Salvador, Stockholm, Tehran, The Hague, Wellington.
68. Informal British minutes of the meetings, held in the British Ministry of Civil Aviation, London, September 12–14, are found in Department of State central indexed files, No. 711.4127/10–1746, not printed.