مجموعة ٨٧/٥س "الولايات المتحدة: طلب الحصول على حقوق عبور جوي عسكري في الهند وبورما" [و‎‎١‎٦‎٥] (٦٠٩/٣٢٩)

It might be argued that, since the American replies to
the questions put to them are unsatisfactory, we should
return with a further set of questions*. We consider, however,
that it would be preferable to state the conditions under
which we would be prepared to negotiate a military air
transit agreement, especially since this course has already
been adopted by the Government of India.
Before considering these conditions, there are two
factors v/hich require special consideration, civil
aviation and reciprocal rights.
Civil Aviation
6 . The India Office have drav/n attention to the fact that
the discussions in Delhi cover a large field of unrelated
subjects mainly concerned with civil aviation facilities.
They consider that the questions of civil and military
aviation facilities should be kept quite separate. We are
in full agreement v/ith this view.. The Ministry of
Civil iiviation also welcome this suggestion but since any
military air transit agreement may well have implications
on the civil aviation aspect, the agreement must contain
safeguards which v/ill satisfy the Ministry , of Civil Aviation.
Reciprocal Rights
7. We note that the Foreign Office are somewhat apprehensive
about our seeking reciprocal rights in return for granting the
American request. While the grant of reciprocal rights would
be advantageous to us, we do not consider that it should
be made an over-riding condition for granting the U.S.
request. It would *>e sufficient if the Americans^were to
agree to receive sympathetically any request we might make
for similar facilities, v/hich should also apply to aircraft
of all the Dominions.
We do- not believe that on the military level there
would be any difficulty in obtaining reciprocal rights.
Furthermore, local agreement has been reached whereby
Australian and New Zealand aircraft make use of
U.S. controlled airfields in the Philippines and ex-Japanese
islands en route to Japan.
Conditions under which U.S. request should be granted
8 . In the light of our previous paper and of the factors
set out above, we consider that the following conditions
should be safeguarded in any military aviation transit
agreement:-
(a) The Americans should make use of British or
Indian controlled airfields, subject to
there being no overcrov/ding.
(b) The /mericans should agree to consider
sympathetically any request which we might
make for similar facilities, which should
also apply to aircraft of all the Dominions.