Chapter CXXIV: The Letters that Bind the Family.
The Empire Air Mail Scheme (EAMS) was an ambitious attempt to bring down an entire flock of birds with a single stone; it would bring the Empire closer together, support Imperial Airways, boost the civil aviation sector, keep up Imperial pride in the face of rival mail schemes, assist in keeping the vital aerospace industry healthy and provide extra employment to combat the depression. The deceptively simple method for achieving these grandiose aims was a subsidy for all first class post sent within the Empire, provided it was delivered by an approved carrier. This, it was hoped, would boost intra-Empire communications and provide a mechanism to bring British civil aviation 'back on terms' with the mail networks established by Air France and Pan Am. At this point it should be made clear that the entire scheme had, in true civil service fashion, a slightly misleading name that served to obscure it's more controversial objectives. Air Mail had been transported around the Empire long before EAMS was formally initiated and ,as mentioned, Imperial Airways had been heavily subsidised since birth, so most of the key elements were not new. We have also seen that the scheme was about much more than just air mail, indeed the postal side of the scheme was so routine it was barely discussed. The key features of EAMS that made it stand out from the previous air mail efforts were the scale, the cost and the technology proposed.
Conceptually EAMS aimed to chart a middle course between the fully nationalised Air France and the corporatist subsidy trough that was the US Air Mail Acts. Imperial Airways would remain notionally in the private sector, though utterly dependent on state subsidy to survive (much like the world's other major airlines), and the routes would be determined as much by the Foreign and Dominion Offices as any commercial considerations. To address the Air Ministry's concerns it was agreed that Imperial Airways would 'consult' before issuing any specification for new aircraft, ensuring that they co-operated with the Air Ministry's bigger plans for civil aviation. These plans were, at the time, mostly driven by one of the Ministry's regular panics that Britain was 'falling behind' overseas rivals and needed to make an effort to catch up. This brings us to the first of the key features, the scale of the scheme, that is best described by considering the pre-EAMS nature of the air mail network and comparing it to the future network envisaged by the scheme.
Sir Christopher Bullock, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Air and one of the driving forces behind British aerial re-armament. Something of a prodigy, his rapid rise to the lofty peaks of the Civil Service and promotion of re-armament had made him some powerful enemies, not least the doveish ex-Head of the Home Civil Service Warren Fisher. His efforts at re-armament vindicated by the Abyssinian War, and the civil service doves in full retreat, Bullock would devote the bulk of his efforts in the mid/late-1930s to civil aviation. Having cut his civil service teeth on the Imperial Airship Scheme and the Air Route to India in the 1920s, and with the full political support of fellow re-armament campaigner Air Minister Winston Churchill, Bullock was the ideal man to take over the struggling EAMS project. Bullock would take over a scheme spiralling out of control, Britain and her Dominions clashed over everything from aircraft choice and routing to the fundamentals of Imperial commercial and industrial policy.
The existing air mail routes were run by a mix of Imperial and Dominion airlines, using a range of aircraft and were as much about moving passengers and having a mail route available as shifting serious quantities of mail or cargo. For instance the recently opened London-Darwin route was operated by Qantas Empire Airways (the imaginative name for a Qantas/Imperial Airways joint venture) using De Havilland DH.86s between Darwin and Singapore, then Imperial Airways to Calcutta in Armstrong Whitworth Atalantas, from there to Karachi an Indian Trans-Continental Airways/Imperial joint venture took over, before Imperial Airways' Handley Page HP.42s took over for the section across the Gulf States and back to London. It hardly needs saying this was a very inefficient way to run a mail route, perhaps less obviously there was concern in Whitehall that this 'sectorisation' was a disruptive force, divisive to unity and encouraging those who wished to see the Dominions assert their independence. It was the objectives of EAMS to replace the mass of local airlines on the main trunk routes with a single Empire-wide carrier, Imperial, operating a single aircraft type, which would both rationalise the operation and serve as a visible sign of the bonds that bound the Empire together. Naturally this was not popular with the Dominions, their nascent 'flag carriers' were touchy subjects and the fact Imperial Airways was a creature of the British Air Ministry and not subject to any Dominion oversight only made matters worse.
A typical scene at an air mail interchange airport in the early 1930s. To the right a Handley Page HP.42 "Hadrian", it's distinctive two top mounted engines hidden by it's upper wing, on the left the far more modern looking Armstrong Whitworth Atalanta "Artemis". The aircraft in between is on the scores of unnamed De Havilland Dragons used by the miriad small airlines scattered across the Empire. As a sign of Imperial Airways priorities, the Atalanta and HP.42 were both airliners that happened to carry mail, the high cost of international air mail kept volumes low so there was always space amongst the baggage hold for a few mail bags. The pair also present a visible example of the speed of aircraft development, the Atalanta's first flight was barely 18months after the HP.42
The cost increase is easier explained; EAMS intended to vastly increase capacity, eventually it was hoped this would lead to economies of scale but in the short term running larger aircraft, more frequently, carrying subsidised mail, would incur additional costs and precious little extra revenue. This was a very deliberate choice, the specification for the future EAMS aircraft had used all the extra space and lifting power of the new design for cargo hold and kept the passenger capacity broadly similar. The effect of all this was a the requirement for a direct subsidy to Imperial of almost £300,000 a year (perhaps £20million in modern money), split between the various states on the route. However this figure did not include the ground organisation (airfields, connections, etc) and the expectation that all involved would charge no fees or taxes and provide subsidised fuel, efforts that could easily quadruple the bill. Despite all this it is neither the cost nor the scale that attracts the most attention in popular history, it is instead the debate over the aircraft. That is perhaps because the preferred technological choice of EAMS was the romantic, inspirational, and divisive seaplane.
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Notes:
And it's back, with a discussion on British Air Mail policy of the 1920s and 30s. I am fairly confident no-one else on this board would even contemplate writing such a thing and trying to pass it off as after action report. That is probably a good thing if we're honest.
Onto the update, Sir Chris Bullock was one of the youngest civil servants to ever head a government department. Big supporter of re-armament and popular with the RAF and those in government and Whitehall who could see, or feared, what was coming. Naturally therefore the appeasement lobby forced him out of government mid-1936 by inventing a scandal, many years later it was confirmed it was a load of rubbish, but by then he had a career in private sector and all the guilty men had been promoted and honoured. Genuinely a depressing story. But TTL it is instead the appeaser who are forced out while Bullock is vindicated, given that even his enemies rated him as exceptionally able this should be a handy boost to the Air Ministry.
EAMS was that big and that pricey (originally) but by early 1936 had slightly fallen apart as Australia didn't want to pay for it unless massive changes were made. These were eventually fudged and the service started a couple of years later, had a horrific Christmas 1938 when it was over loaded by the Xmas cards/presents and was only saved from collapsing entirely in Christmas 1939 by the war breaking out. It is safe to assume that will not happen this time around.
As always the patience of my readers astounds me and I only hope this is an acceptable first step towards repaying your faithful waiting.
