"ملف 13/22 المسار الجوي بين الهند والخليج العربي. المسار الجوي بين الهند والمملكة المتحدة" [و‎‎٣] (١٣٨/٥)

for an air line. Should it be possible to utilise the
aerodrome at Gwadur* still more traffic would be avail
able, but in any case this distance provides a useful
refuelling stop for the more economical types of aircraft.
5. At Sharjah, this air line could land simply
by paying landing fees to His Majesty^ Government who
already maintain and administer the aerodrome and have
an agreement with the Shaikh of that place. fhere is a
large Indian community both here and In Dubai who already
appreciate air facilities, and in addition the Indian ; ost
Office at Sharjah or Dubai would naturally sent their
postal packets, which can be quite considerable, by an
Indian air line, which would be fully justified since
Indian internal air postage rates are now charged.
6 . At Bahrain, the air line could land on
similar terms and little expenditure would be required.
Here again there is a very large Indian community, a close
c onnection with Karachi and Bombay, an Indian Post Office
which would make available large quantities of postal air
mail packets to and from India, and finally an Arab
community fully alive to the advantages of air travel and
the disadvantages which they now experience in endeavouring
to secure passages on long distance aeroplanes.
7. * At Kuwait the aerodrome is not at present
maintained, but it is an all-weather aerodrome (regularly
used by Kuwait Oil Company planes up to Lockheeds) which
has very seldom gone out of order, and meteorological
reports of Basra would with very occasional exceptions^
suffice for Kuwait. Here a good deal of traffic could be
expected since not merely is there an Indian Post Office
which would provide a quantity of air mail, but there is a
growing Indian community based upon the Kuwait Oil Compaay.
An air line landing here would be most popular with trie
Arabs in that they would not be obliged, as they are at
present, to wait a month for a visa to Iraq in order to
fly from Basra. The distance from Kuwait to Basra is a
very short one but the traffic that Kuwait would provide
w ould fully justify a halt here.
S. Basra is the logical terminus of this line
and medium-sized aircraft could continue to land in the
Basra air port Margil. There can be no doobt that with
the close and rapidly increasing trade links that Iraq is
forging with India, Basra would provide a considerable
number of passengers, and in addition at certaii times
there would be a very large pilgrim traffic which might
call for extra planes.
9. To sum up, this air line would only be
required to fly short distances, through areas with large
Indian interests and Indian Post Offices, and with a
population well accustomed to air travel,. Potential
passengers are at present badly served owing to the ±act
that the existing air lines cater to long distance
travellers and give them preference over local traffic.
/ If the