me of traffic; it should be much simpler to control than
many international routes, which inevitably have many complications;
weather conditions are not unfavourable; and the time taken for the
journey by sea would be reduced by about one-half. If the shortcomings
in point of distance of the continental routes in reaping the full
advantages of travel by air, and the importance of the best possible
communications for the Empire, are recognized, it is essential that a
practical form of assistance should be given in the near future to the
conduct of weekly or even bi-weekly services each way between Cairo and
Karachi. Although it will not be a commercial proposition for some time,
the Egypt-Karachi route, shortening as it will the delivery of mails
between England and India by two-thirds, and England and Australia by
one-third, offers greater results than the various other schemes at
present contemplated. There are, however, certain considerations which
will have to be weighed before the immense amount of work necessary to
its initiation as a commercial air route is begun. The French, for
instance, hope to push a trunk air route to India via Constantinople,
and this line has the advantage of avoiding a long sea and desert
crossing. On the other hand, it will be a very difficult matter to
negotiate the mountains of Anatolia.

If enterprises of this kind are successfully started, if each of our
self-governing Dominions and Colonies encourages civil aviation within
its own territory, and develops the air-sense of its people, each
portion of the Empire, by a process of natural expansion, and by the
gradual extension of local air lines to merge with those from other
portions of the Empire, will assist in eventually forming a continuous
chain of inter-Imperial air communication. Such a process of internal
development, supported by close co-operation between the States of the
Imperial Commonwealth, is the best method of obtaining rapidity of air
intercommunication and a system of Imperial air bases necessary to the
strategic security of the Empire.

CONCLUSION

Within the necessarily narrow limits of this survey there has been
traced the history of aviation from the earliest days; the tremendous
impetus given to it by the war has been described, during the course of
which not only did air co-operation become essential to the Navy and
Army, but the importance of the Air Force as a separate arm, with its
own strategic ac