-0.3a.
No.
SECRET
Subject: ^L***^***^
by
\
Reference to previous correspondence :
With tho compliments of
A copy has also been sent to
Dominions Office, Downing Street,
18 MAR 1933 193
(R6439)   Wt 1SSC8,30S7   20.000(1)   7^30   If A 8*   Op BIO
To the United Kingdom High Commissioners in the
Commonwealth of Australia and How Zealand.
(3ont 8 p,m., 17th March, 19M.
, Secret.
Your telegram Uo.41 or the 10th
As v/o see It position t's aft follows^~
V/hllat full*1 sharing wish to push on v*.v-,i.
establishment of a trans-Pacific air route a» rapidly as
possible, we1 consider that positive progr«»b can oeet be
achieved by inducing United States Government tv   o operate
for the purpose.     As yet United States Government have,
however, abstained from accepting repeated inyttatJ >n to
enter into a four-party eonferonce to discuae aetiloment of
tho problem on practical basis of reciprocal air facilities,
instead they have hitherto 3ought to secure control for
themselves over intormadiary' linlcs in chain of trans-
pacific aviation by advancing claims to Pacific Islands
hitherto regarded as British, and have recently renewed
their proposal for a discussion designed to regulate the
status and use of islands in dispute*     As Commonwealth
Ooremnont are aware from draft reply th this proposal,4in
which they have expressed concurrence, (see their telegram
of 11th Ilarch No.26) His Majesty's Government in United
Kingdom* although not excluding possibility of a discussion
of the status cf Individual islands as a secondary matter
at the four-party conference when it materialises, are
opposed to United States solution, which brings the
difficult question of sovereignty into the foreground and
assumes that ownership of such islands can be determined
independently of their value as part of a general system of
air