See Tafuna Busy

Americans Want To See Tafuna Busy

A MERICAN aviation flag carriers “should not promote the interests of a foreign area to the detriment of an American territory”, said US Secretary of the Interior Department, Mr. S. L. Udall, recently, when re porting to the US Civil Aeronautics Board about Pacific air services.

He was referring to the possibility of an American airline using Papeete as the stop-over on a one-stop service between California and NZ or Aus tralia. Both PAA and South Pacific Air Lines have asked the CAB for authority to fly from the American coast into the South Pacific.

Mr. Udall made it clear to the CAB that Tafuna, in American Samoa, should be used as a stopping point in preference to Papeete by American airlines, or at any rate, Tafuna should also be a stopping point.

He pointed out that apart from national reasons, distances between San Francisco and Sydney, or Los Angeles and Sydney, were shorter via Samoa than Papeete (San Francisco- Sydney is 6,527 miles, compared with San Francisco-Tahiti-Sydney 6,971 miles, and from Los Angeles the re spective figures are 6,540 and 6,879).

Mr. Udall said the US was invest ing more than eight million dollars in the building of Tafuna, and more than nine million dollars this year for Samoan development generally.

Referring to recent public criticism of the US for alleged neglect of American Samoa, Mr. Udall added: “The government is now making strenuous efforts to improve condi tions in American Samoa. Any de cision of the Board that favours a foreign area over an allegedly mis treated American possession would provide added room for criticism.”

Mr. Udall also said he wanted to put his views when the CAB heard arguments on the Pacific routes from Australian and NZ carriers.

The US trans-Pacific route investi gations by the CAB have now been going on for about three years.