Coll 5/20 ‘Air Route to India – Arab Coast Secn: Negotiations with Trucial Sheikhs’ [‎430r] (870/1290)

‘ Departmental Observations on the New Proposal.
17. The majority of the Committee were generally in favour of the adoption
of the landplane service, but since, in the view of the Foreign Office, there are
•considerable political objections to the use of landplanes. that Department feels
hound to draw attention to them, so that Ministers may clearly realise and fully
T ept all the implications before determining on the course proposed.
Foreign Office Criticisms and Air Ministry Remarks thereon.
{X) Persian Risk.
18. This applies mainly to the stretch between the Oman Peninsula and
Gwadar. Although it is proposed that the landplanes should fly outside Persian
territorial waters, it is clear that any emergency landing would have to be
effected on Persian soil. As the Persians will have definitely refused to permit
Imperial Airways to continue to use and to fly over Persian territory, any landing
made on Persian soil would probably lead to grave complications. Were the
service to be operated by flying boats, a minor defect could perhaps be rectified
by a descent in the open sea, and even if it were necessary to alight in Persian
waters, it would at least be obvious that a serious attempt had been made to
avoid using Persian territory. On the other hand, a landplane service pre
supposes the eventuality of utilising for emergency landings the territory of
the States over which it is operated, and the Persian Government would probably
consider, more especially if emergency landings had to be made in Persia, that
Imperial Airways were merely attempting to evade by a subterfuge their refusal
to continue to grant the desired permission. In these circumstances emergency
landings might even lead to the confiscation of the aircraft and possibly the
arrest of the pilots and/or passengers, and a diplomatic situation of considerable
difficulty would probably arise.
On the other hand, the Air Ministry contend that His Majesty’s Government
will have complied with Persia's request by removing from her territory the air
route to which she took exception; that the type of aircraft used is no business
of Persia and that in any case, whether land or seaplanes, they will fly outside
territorial limits. In connection with the risk of emergency landing on Persian
soil or Persian waters it is contended that these risks are lessened by using a
4-engined landplane in place of a 3-engined seaplane with the same type of
engine and that, in fact, the chance of a landing in Persian territory is remote.
It is further pointed out that the state of the sea off the Persian coast is usually
such as to render it impracticable for a seaplane to alight outside territorial
limits to effect minor repairs and that, in fact, a seaplane alighting for this
purpose would, of necessity, seek refuge within territorial waters under the lee
of the land. Although apart from the rights conferred by the International
Air Navigation Convention in respect of casual flights by civil aircraft, the
position of aircraft differs from that of merchant shipping in that unauthorised
flight over the territory of another State would be an infringement of the
sovereignty of that State, the Air Ministry take the view that Persia, who is
herself, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, a party to the Air Naviga
tion Convention, could hardly so far ignore the dictates of common humanity
and international courtesy as to arrest the crew or confiscate an aircraft landing
in distress on her territory. It is further contended that Persia could easily
maintain that Imperial Airways were relying on her territorial waters and that,
therefore, in law and practice, the case of the aeroplane and that of the flying
boat landing through force majeure within Persian territory or territorial waters
would be identical.
(B) Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. .
19. In the case of landplanes, any emergency landing on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
would probably have to be made among wild and hostile tribes, wheieas m e
case of flying boats emergency landings could be made, either within reach, o
shipping or, at any rate, sufficiently far from the shore not to be exposed to the
hostility of the natives. Were an emergency landing to be made among a hostile
tribe and a disaster to result, the despatch of a rescue or punitive expedition
might be necessitated, and involve expenditure on a far larger scale than anything