800.796/9–744
The Canadian Embassy to the Department of State 75
Memorandum
Post War Civil Aviation Arrangements
It is recognized by the Canadian authorities that additional air services may be required in the immediate future and that it is necessary to improve civil air facilities as the war recedes; that all action should not be delayed until hostilities have ceased.
Nevertheless, the Canadian authorities feel strongly that to deal with this situation by encouraging bilateral agreements on air rights before an International Air Conference is held will seriously prejudice the chances of reaching a successful international settlement at that Conference. There now exists an opportunity, which may not soon recur, of reaching a broad measure of international agreement on the future lines of development of international air transport. There is considerable support among Governments for the view that an advance must be made in this field beyond the restrictive type of air diplomacy which characterized the pre-war period.
The constructive part that an International Conference might play in furthering this advance might well be made impossible by a race [Page 535] to conclude bilateral agreements at the present stage. The Canadian authorities, therefore, favour the calling of an International Conference at the earliest possible date and are anxious that the chances of success of this Conference should not be prejudiced by prior bilateral commitments.
Individual rights, which might well be conflicting, would militate against the give and take which would be possible if Governments came to a conference without comitments and in a sincere effort to reach a multilateral agreement in the interests of all. A return to the hard bargaining of the pre-war period with all its rivalries and animosities is not necessary. On the contrary, the Canadian authorities are hopeful that the Nations interested in air transport can deal with the subject on a more rational basis in the interests of improved communications and better international relations. They are confident that to fall back at this stage, before any attempt at an international settlement has been made, on a purely bilateral approach is to miss an opportunity to put international air transport on a new and sounder basis.
- Marginal notation: “Phone to Mr. Reid, Canadian Embassy, who said that, a conference having been called, no reply to this is required. BC: JGP 9/20/44.”↩