Our Civil Air Failure
The decision of Imperial Airways to suspend bookings on Imperial air routes is in its way a national humiliation. It is obvious that of the five grounds pleaded by the company for its failure every one reflects lack of foresight, and all but the first point straight to administrative incapacity. The collapse implies no fault in Sir John Reith and the present management They have had too little time to pull round. But it throws a lurid light on the state of things that they must have found when they took over from their pre- decessors. However, there is nothing here to make us doubt the essential wisdom of what Parliament did, when it amal- gamated Imperial Airways with British Airways into a new type of company. For the present the Reith management must be left to make the best that it can of a bad job ; and since it is not in a position to indulge pride of any kind, it can scarcely be blamed for proceeding to buy American machines. The performance of the 'Caribou,' carrying the first British mail to the United States projects a ray of com- fort. But not more than a ray, since the American record on the Atlantic route so far eclipses curs.
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