Lasting peace, build on justice and understanding among nations. This is the objective of the United Nations. This is another program in the United Nations series of the Pacific Story, one of the five special series presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations to further world unity and world peace through understanding. For hundreds of years, the Pacific and the lands it touches have been the scene of struggle, conflict for gain and power, people against people, and the millions caught in the political and economic cross currents. Today, with most of the world's population concentrated around and in the Pacific, the events of the Pacific are a vital world concern. The Pacific Story dedicates this series to the objective of the United Nations. Lasting peace, built on justice and understanding among nations. Skyway to the Far East. The pilot says we'll be in Minneapolis in an hour. Wonderful. What do you estimate our actual air time for the trip? Adding this next hour, a total of 160. Good, less than a week. What about our mileage? When we hit Minneapolis, we'll have traveled about a hundred miles. That's a lot of air. We'll have to get to the airport in about an hour. That's a lot of air. We'll have to get to the airport in about an hour. That's a lot of air. We'll have to get to the airport in about an hour. When we hit Minneapolis, we'll have traveled 31,000 miles. 31,000 miles. Doesn't seem possible that we're so many miles from other peoples. Actually, I have the feeling of being very close to them. Well, you know the old saw. It's a small world. Today, it really is. Small and interlinked, my friend. What we think, say and do affects the peoples of the Far East. What they think, say and do affects us. [♪triumphant music playing on radio Thus, Wendell Wilkie, advocate of one world, voiced his convictions following around-the-world flight in 1942. And men who might debate his political views could not deny the geographical realities he made clear. Our world has no far corners left. Modern ways of travel have blasted old notions of time and space. In the Far East, there are vast millions of peoples who are closer to us than we realize. In the years ahead, what happens here will affect them. What happens there will influence us. I strongly believe that tomorrow's outlook must be a world outlook. [♪triumphant music playing on radio The power pioneered in peace and rapidly matured by war has shrunk distances that were vast only twenty years ago. The global war is gone, but the global thinking is here to stay. And a world which once thought of travel in terms of East and West, now thinks in terms of North. North to everywhere. [♪triumphant music playing on radio Attention, please. I want you to forget the Mercator World maps you studied in your geographies when you went to school. This is a navigation expert lecturing to new employees of an airline. We have to think of the Earth as really round, not flat or cylindrical. Just say to yourselves that there is no Pacific Ocean between us and China. But there is a Pacific Ocean. No, young man, not the way we travel. It's the Arctic Sea, not the Pacific Ocean that we cross in a plane flying from Beiping nonstop to New Orleans. It isn't the Atlantic, but the Arctic Sea that we cross in flying direct from San Francisco to Moscow. You mean that the shortest route to the Far East is northward from the United States? Correct, as the circle on this blackboard indicates. It follows the curve of the Earth, the shortest surface distance between two points on a sphere. You may be flying this skyway to Asia someday. What does north to everywhere mean to you? Well, I'm a Chicagoan, but I know now that Moscow is a nearer neighbor than Buenos Aires. Don't forget that. All Asia is a neighbor, whether we like it or not. And whether Asia likes it or not. North to the Orient is not a dream born of the war years. 15 years ago, an air pioneer with one airline consulted with a member of the company. Hi, Mac. Busy? Hell, hi, you fella. You ever know me when I wasn't? Not too busy to see you, though. What's on your mind? Do you remember my talking to you early this year about a flight I wanted to make to the Far East? Yep, sure thing. We hadn't decided on any route, though. Well, I've been giving it some thought. Why not take this great circle course from New York to Tokyo? Looks good on the globe. Shortest route. Should save you time and mileage. Let's see, uh, this takes you to Canada, to Alaska, to Siberia, and the Coral Islands to Japan. Right. You know the picture, Mac. In the past, the Arctic's been explored mainly for its own interest. Yeah, but an Arctic air route's never been used mainly to shorten travel between the continents. It's just been talked about. Right. That's one of the reasons I'd like to take this trip and study conditions along the way. In the future, air routes between America and Japan, China and Siberia will be mighty important. Yeah, I'm with you on that, fella. We'll pick out a time of the year when fog and weather conditions in the Bering Sea are at a minimum. Well, then let's say between July 1st and August 15th. Fair enough. When are you starting? July 1st. Yep. All right with me. Good luck. I'll be anxious to get your report. I have a hunch we're starting something big. The information gained on this flight encouraged the airline to seek the cooperation of the Soviet Union for the establishment of the North Pacific route. Range of then-existing aircraft was limited. The route would necessarily have to pass through Siberia. Your proposal is very interesting, but I can do nothing for you. Why? Surely you can see the advantage for both our countries if we launched a regular route through Siberia. It is a matter of national policy. The decision must come from the highest authority. The skyway to Asia was still a possibility. At Alameda Airport on the morning of November 22nd, 1935, it became an actuality. We have our bases built in Honolulu, Midway, Wake, Guam, and Manila, then on to the Orient. This is Captain Edward Musick, pilot of the first China Clipper. He is about to fly the first Trans-Pacific Air Mail on the long 8,000-mile run to Asia. You know, this new service will bring Asia within five days of the United States. That's less than a third of the time of the fastest steamship, which does it in 17 days. Instead of taking five days to get to the Hawaiian Islands by steamer, we fly there overnight. From San Francisco. China Clipper, are you ready? China Clipper, Captain Musick, standing by for orders, sir. China Clipper, cast off. Still flying, both noses through the water rises and sweeps off on the first Trans-Pacific Air Mail flight. It cruises an area extending over one-third the way around the world. With this launching of regular mail and passenger service, one skyway to Asia became a reality. But the short northern route is not forgotten in the United States, nor is it forgotten in Asia. In June, 1937, a plane lands in Southern California. I am Czechler. Together with Baidukov and Bialyskov, I left the Soviet Republic, flying over the North Pole on June 18. This is June 20th, yes? We are glad to be here in Southern California. Proof that this rapid flight from Russia was no fluke was offered a month later, when still another plane took off from Russia to land in the state of Washington. The northern passage had become highly practicable by air. Well, here we go, Limburger, hauling another one over Al Sib. Yeah, it's good to get going again. Think of those poor guys stuck in the office downstairs. Off they go into the file case yonder. These are men of the Air Transport Command, flying one of the world's most important airways during the war. Al Sib, code name for Alaska-Siberia, a great circle route stretching from Great Falls, Montana to Siberia. Well, that wasn't a bad feat at Great Falls, Freddy. Of course, they didn't have much variety in cheese. You know, Limburger, the way you go for cheese, you think they designed the mousetraps just for you. Oh, wait a minute, Freddy, back in Wisconsin where I come from. Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. They take pride in cheese. It's one of your biggest products. I'm glad you appreciate that. Two lovely dogs we had until last night, waiting for a word of encouragement. And all you do is drool about cheese on hamburgers, cheese on apple pie, cheese in farmer's salad and cheese in Welsh rarebred. And Marge promised to let me use her stove when we get back. Then you'll see me whip up a cheese souffle that's out of this world. No, no, I will not double date with you and get rooked in on a cooking lesson. The trouble with you, Freddy, is you don't appreciate the finer things. Why don't you crawl back in your trap? These two are commissioned officers attached to the ferrying command. When the Japanese were threatening the Aleutians, the air route to Alaska was a necessary measure of defense. The ferrying command employed civilian fliers as well as commissioned men, contracted for the services of commercial airlines and their pilots. The route flown, once one of the war's best kept secrets, runs from Great Falls, Montana, by way of Canada's Edmonton, Fort Nelson, and Whitehorse, to Fairbanks and Nome, Alaska. Then the Siberian portion of the run, shuttling across the Bearing Strait to Markova, Yakutsk, and other Russian air bases. Along this route are ferried thousands of American planes and the supplies which help the Russians break the Nazi drive on Stalingrad. Along this route go the supplies needed for American defense positions in the Aleutians. Say, Limburger, you know what I found out at GHQ? What? This plane is the 6,000th flown to the Russkies in one four-month period. No kidding? Say, our guys have sure been plowing out to the Aleutians. We're not the only ones trading supplies out there, though. You're telling me. Didn't I lose 20 bucks to all those civilian pilots the last time we were up there? Yeah, that's right. You're the pigeon that always gets sevens after instead of a four. And you know why? On account you eat too much cheese. Oh, yeah? Maybe if you ate more cheese you'd have my good looks and personality. Surveilled jointly by the U.S. Army and the Canadians, the Alaskan route flies over some of the highest mountain ranges in the Rockies until it reaches Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska. Well, Limburger, oh boy, here we are again. We've handed the line for us. We should let us fly on the rest of the way to Siberia. Guy gets tired of looking at the same old scenery. You mean there's a difference between Alaska ice and Siberian ice? It ain't all ice. They got big cities in Russia. Yeah, I know. You might pick up some new cheese recipes. Comrade, it's good to see you again. Ah, how are you, Ruskie? Quite well, thank you. How was the trip over? Pretty good. Some fog coming in. Say, wouldn't you like us to fly this bomber out to Siberia for you? Thank you. No, comrade. We can take over from here. We have much experience flying over the Bering Sea. Thus, Americans and Russians blazed the Al Sib sky trail, flying over the mountain peaks, ice fields, and tundras of Alaska and Siberia. In the years ahead, this route can become the vital link between the new world of America and Canada and the new world of Soviet Asia. But wartime strategy demanded other routes in protection of the Pacific lifeline. The Air Transport Command, even before Japan attacked, had begun construction on bases along the midway Wake Guam line to the Philippines. When the enemy blasted and seized most of these bases in the making and also the potential bases southward in the islands, Australia and New Zealand became springboards from which to launch the counterattack on Japan. To link Honolulu with Australia, construction was rushed on a chain of airfields. Added to the symphony of airplane, machine gun, long-tarmant mortar, came the obligato of a new war weapon, the bulldozer. Eating big chunks of dirt, leveling embankments, the bulldozer in the hands of skilled construction men built airfields, bridges, and victory. The barren coral atoll of Canton Island south of the equator grew concrete strips. Nandi and the Fiji Islands became another base. The middle of a forest in New Caledonia became a ferrying and transport base. And to the airfields of Australia and New Zealand flew a steady stream of planes and supplies, vital in pushing the fight against the enemy. The War of the Air Force Now that the war is over, what happens to the Army's air bases abroad? Do U.S. commercial airlines get to use them? A reporter poses the post-war question to an official of the Air Transport Command. We've spent millions on those facilities and a great deal of time and effort. During wartime, we've earned international air franchises for the United States. We'd like to see the air open to commercial auspices. But aren't those franchises contingent on whether other countries will let us use airports in peacetime and on conditions under which passengers may be picked up and delivered? It's very true. Such things have to be settled around a table in conference with foreign representatives. What would our attitude be if these foreign representatives propose cutting up the air routes into small sections under varying national control? Personally, I'd not be sympathetic to such proposals. Cutting up routes into small segments would make for inefficiency. I'd prefer complete freedom of the air, the rights to use bases and share traffic. What would the official policy on overseas air commerce be? For a single flag line or in favor of competition? That'll be up to the Civil Aeronautics Board, of course. But the C.A. Act of 1938 calls for competition to the extent necessary to assure the sound development of an air transportation system. I have no doubt this is the principle on which the Board will base its award of routes. Underlining the principle of competition, the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1945 allocated North Atlantic routes to three U.S. carriers. In March 1945, with Asiatic problems of relief and rehabilitation crying for speedy action, an airline official makes an announcement. You'll be interested to know that Pan American World Airways is inaugurating a series of weekly charter flights from the United States to Shanghai via Tokyo. The flights will be operated under contract with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Who arranged these flights and how long will they continue? Well, they'll continue during the spring and early summer. They were arranged at the request of Governor Layman, Director General for UNRWA. How fast will your planes travel and what's the route? We'd use modern 300-mile-per-hour clippers equipped with pressurized cabins for flying comfort at a cruising altitude of 20,000 feet. These charter flights will operate over the Great Circle route through Alaska with an intermediate refueling stop at ADAC in the Aleutians. How much mileage does that route save compared with the long dogleg route via Honolulu and Midway? The direct route saves us 2,900 miles on each round trip. But how safe and practicable is that northern route? Well, we've been trying to establish commercial air service over this direct Great Circle route to the Orient for 15 years. In 1932, we organized Scheduled Air Transport Service in Alaska. It was extended to Seattle before the war. Our scheduled air services between Seattle and Alaska already cover half the Great Circle route to Tokyo. Oh, well this UNRWA charter flight then over the route will be mostly over familiar territory. Mm-hmm, exactly. Before the war, we were unable to extend services beyond Alaska to Tokyo and Shanghai because Japan refused its operating rights. That's why we had to confine our Trans-Pacific Service at that time over the longer route via Honolulu, Midway, and Wake Islands. The dogleg route was the only way we could then provide American flag air service to the Orient. European airlines offered services via the Middle East and India to the Orient. Well, these UNRWA charter flights don't mean commercial service, do they? No, but we're hoping the government will soon authorize us to operate such services over the Great Circle route to Tokyo and Shanghai. Don't you have longer jumps on this route than you do on the dogleg? No, it's just the other way around. Via Honolulu, the long jump between Midway and Tokyo is 2,544 miles. Over the northern route via ADAC, the longest nonstop flight is just 2,406 miles. But how about the difference in weather? Weather advantage is on the direct Great Circle route. Storm clouds on this course seldom rise above 20,000 feet. On the dogleg, storm clouds often extend well above flying altitudes. That means greater regularity can be forecast on the Great Circle route. That's the route over which most American air traffic with the Orient will move in the future. On March 29th, 23 hours and 16 minutes after leaving Tokyo, the Clipper reaches the United States. Record-breaking flight time, Tokyo to Seattle, is 18 hours, 25 minutes. But other airlines are quick to project plans for global operations. After long consideration, the CAB has made several recommendations. The CAB examiners recommend that TWA extend its North Atlantic route from Bombay, India to Shanghai. They're connecting with a Trans-Pacific route flown by Northwest Airlines. CAB recommends Pan-American World Airways fly over the West Coast to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, and Australia, and may consolidate its U.S.-Alaska routes into one with Seattle and Fairbanks as terminal points. CAB recommends Northwest Airlines fly the Great Circle route via Edmonton, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska, then to Tokyo, Shanghai, and points in Manchuria, East China, and Manila. TWA may extend its route from Lethbridge, Canada to Edmonton, making connections with Northwest's Great Circle route to the Orient. The rich aerial trade routes are allocated on a competitive basis, and domestic rivalry is by no means the only factor involved. For the competition is not confined to the United States interests alone. Gentlemen, we are gathered here from many nations to reach a meeting of minds on the question of postwar international air policy. This is the Chicago Air Conference of November 1944, attended by delegates of many nations. To date, we have drawn up five freedom issues on which I hope we can achieve accord. First, freedom for peaceful commercial aircraft to fly across the territory of another nation. Second, freedom for such aircraft to land in another country for repairs or refueling. I believe there is no misunderstanding and small dispute on these two issues, and suggest they be incorporated in the two freedoms of transit agreement. Gentlemen, if we are in agreement, let's move ahead to the other suggested issues. Third, freedom to carry traffic from the plane's country of origin to another country. Fourth, freedom to pick up in another country traffic destined for the plane's homeland. Fifth, freedom for planes to carry traffic between countries other than their own. Mr. Chairman. The delegate from England has the floor. Mr. Chairman, regarding these two freedoms, three and four, I believe it is possible to achieve understanding and agreement if the two countries involved share frequencies of flight on an equal basis. Then, if a line can prove that its planes are over 65 percent loaded during a given period, it may be permitted to inaugurate additional service. You assume, of course, that both nations have the equipment to start operations simultaneously. Where such is not the case, I propose that the nation possessing equipment may initiate service, but that the second nation still maintain its rights to fly when it is ready. What about the fifth item, pickups? The fifth suggestion, that of freedom for planes to carry traffic between countries other than their own, gentlemen, would seem to be altogether too much freedom. I agree. The United States delegation differs on this point. Is it not obvious that if long air routes are to be flown at all, planes must have pickup privileges along the way if the line is to pay. Otherwise, a U.S. plane flying to India via Britain and the Middle East might be practically empty at the point of destination. That is one viewpoint. May I point out, on the other hand, that if your planes are permitted to pick up an unlimited number of passengers on the through routes, they might well injure British operations across Europe and throughout the Empire. May I also point out that the United States has a great continent whose traffic pays for most U.S. lines, but the profitable existence of most other nations does not lie within the limitations of their own small lands, but in inter-country service. Thus, traffic that is marginal for the United States is basic to other nations. I therefore propose that we first reach a compromise on freedoms three and four, and that we refer questions on this fifth freedom to an international authority which shall adjudicate conflicting claims. My Canadian colleague agrees with this proposal. Yes, I do indeed. Gentlemen, the United States delegation cannot agree with this proposal for this sort of international civil aeronautics board. An international authority is worthless unless clearly defined policies can be established in advance. You have your own civil aeronautics board? Because it can frame domestic policy in the light of broad national need. An international body would be unable to perform similarly. It would very likely result in a meeting place where each nation would push its own private interest. It appears to me that the United States desires to compete for inter-country traffic, but is hardly willing to open up its own continental business to other nations. Gentlemen, we cannot resolve this issue of the fifth air freedom at this time. I therefore suggest that we see what can be accomplished in resolving the third and fourth to our mutual satisfaction. May I point out that the third and fourth freedoms cannot be separated from the fifth, because such separation would still leave the whole question of pick-up rights between countries unresolved. No, gentlemen, we cannot settle three and four without also settling freedom five. He is right. We can accomplish no more at this time. The conference adjourned on this discordant note. It established the two freedoms or transit agreement since signed by most nations. The five freedoms or transport agreement has been signed by most South American countries, by such nations as China, the Netherlands, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark. Here, a non-signatory has negotiated a treaty with the United States giving this country the five freedoms privileges. The United States has the right of transit and of technical stop in the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Iraq, India, and Turkey. We are hopeful that CAB's route allocation has paved the way for discussions with fifteen or twenty countries with which we do not have agreements. Music Greatest question mark in a post-war world dwarfed by the magic of modern aerial routes is Russia. Air routes are proposed for virtually every part of the world by U.S. interests, but not across Siberia from Yakutsk to Moscow. The United States position is clear. The air must remain free for the transit and transport of all nations. The CAB certainly is not interested in projecting routes over the North Pole or other uneconomic regions. Skyways of the future must go through traffic generating areas. Rich prize would be Soviet concessions authorizing American interests to operate through rich Siberia. But the Kremlin gives no indication of granting such limitless concessions. A reporter speculates on the possible outcome. Russia may give a few limited concessions at first in exchange for help from America. She's short on transport planes, you know, but she owns the airspace over the Soviet Union and knows it. Maybe her final proposal will be some sort of arrangement permitting a Siberian terminal for an American airline with a transfer to Soviet transcontinental and feeder lines. Meanwhile, U.S. airlines agitate unceasingly for free international air. They spend money on traffic surveys, studies of weather conditions over projected routes, influencing people in the lands where they hope to fly. Strong is the U.S. feeling that the air of the world must in the future be free. In the view of the one world explorer, Wendell Wilkie... Make no mistake about it, global flying has also brought about global thinking. All over the world are men who realize that the peoples, wherever they may live, are really next door neighbors. When you travel the skyways, distance is small. Europe and Asia are only next door to us. Music Many are the problems of a modern world no longer at war, but still uneasy with the peace, still restless with the shape it is to assume. But the skyway to the Far East is an integral factor in the closer relations possible with our neighbors of the Orient. Music You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Music Tonight's Pacific Story was produced and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gain Whitman. Music Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas to the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company. Music
