(Due to arrive Melbourne-19.7.26)

My dear P.M.,

I lunched privately with Sir Sefton Brancker yesterday-the
Controller of Civil Aviation. He had been going into the
suggestion that I threw out to Sir Hugh Trenchard [1]-that the
Ismailia-Karachi air service should be extended in the first place
to Colombo rather than Burma and Singapore, in order to give us
some immediate saving of time on urgent mails and selected
passengers to and from Australia.

He said that if the Port Said-Karachi-Colombo route were flown day
and night, it would be possible, with a reasonable margin, to pick
up the mail from one boat at Port Said and place it on board the
boat ahead at Colombo, i.e. a saving in time of seven days.

However, he said that such an extension from Karachi to Colombo
was a matter of money. H.M.G. will subsidise the Ismailia-Karachi
route to the extent of �93,000 a year. He thinks the Karachi-
Colombo extension would mean something in the nature of an
additional �20,000 a year subsidy. Who is to find this money? It
is but little advantage to the Government of India. The people who
would benefit are H.M.G. and the Australian and New Zealand
Governments and the Government of Ceylon. Are Australia and New
Zealand willing to co-operate in the additional cost? The
Government of Ceylon would, of course, benefit but they are small
fry.

I said that I thought there would be some considerable revenue in
additional postage on commercial mail matter. And that I thought
that any project that would bring Australia nearer to Great
Britain would have your sympathy and support, but that I did not
know your mind on this particular scheme.

He said that he would very much appreciate the opportunity of
discussing this and similar matters with Colonel Brinsmead [2] if
you thought fit to bring him with you to the Imperial Conference.

He said, I think rightly, that the military flying people did not
appreciate the problems or possibilities of commercial flying, and
that on the subject of Imperial air communications, it was the
Controllers of Civil Aviation who should get together. I said that
I would put the suggestion on paper to you that you should bring
Brinsmead with you, but that I also realised that you could not
bring all your advisers with you.

Brancker's ideas are that the main air line to Australia will
eventually be by airship, with 'feeders' by aeroplane. It is a
question in his mind whether the airships will go beyond
Singapore. He thinks a seaplane route from Darwin to Singapore
would be suitable with aeroplane joining Darwin with Sydney or
with Western Australian Airways.

I am, Yours sincerely,
R. G. CASEY

Casey's correspondence was interrupted by the Imperial Conference
of 1926. Bruce left Australia in August and, after the conference
in October-November, returned to Australia via Canada and the
United States, where he met President Calvin Coolidge.