Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 18 September 1940, page 11


SUVA TO BE AIR

BASE.

Pacific Defence Plans.

BRITAIN AND U.S. AGREE.

BY OUR AVIATION CORRESPONDENT.

By Invitation ' from the' ''British authorities, Pan-American Airways will make Suva a 'regular stop between Canton Island and New Caledonia, and the Fijian Government will construct a flying-boat base at a waterway ad-jacent to Suva Harbour, suitable for both an Empire service and Boeing clippers.

The establishment of a flying-boat base at Suva was consider J at a recent defence Con-ference in Wellington (N.Z.), and the base will bo constructed, not' only for the use ol a British Pacific air service and Pan-Ameiican Airways, but foi the defence alicraft of both countries.

Mr. H. Gatty, Pan-American Airways New Zealand lepiesentative, and Captain J. W. Burgess, flight superintendent of Tasman Em-pire Airways, Ltd., recently visited Suva to-gether to confer on the establishment of a suitable combined British and American base The California Clipper surveyed the proposed base fiom the air on a flight to San Fiancisco.

The decision that American and British air services should share the facilities at Suva has a precedent at Canton Island, which is administeied by a United States and Empire con-dominium.

When the Pan-American Airways yacht, Southern Seas, which is now in Sydney, re-turns to Noumea she will be anchored in Noumea Harbour and used as a floating hotel until the political situation there clears.

Mr. Gatty, his wife, and children, will be passengers in the Pan-American Airways yacht to New Caledonia. They will return to Auck-land in the fiist south-bound clipper.