Global Transportation 99 



"We all share the healthy American aspiration to be the 

 winner of a race or a ball game or an international business 

 competition," he said. "But fair is fair. If you want to win a 

 baseball game you try to out-hit and out-score the other fel- 

 low, but you don't take away his bat." 



In a questionnaire on postwar air commerce which the CAB 

 sent to eighteen air lines the private companies indicated firm 

 opposition to government participation in the management or 

 ownership of their companies in the development of foreign 

 air commerce. The air lines contended that past performance 

 has shown that private management and initiative "are capa- 

 ble of successfully upholding the role of the United States in 

 post-war transport." 



They agreed with the CAB that the government should 

 immediately arrange a reciprocal exchange with other coun- 

 tries for the general right of "innocent passage" (nonrnili- 

 tary), together with the right to land for refuelling and for 

 other technical needs. 



Merchant ships long have enjoyed the right of "innocent 

 passage" through waterways controlled by a foreign nation. 

 Airplanes never have had this right. For example, an Ameri- 

 can ship on a voyage from Seattle to Alaska could pass 

 through Canadian territorial waters without asking anybody's 

 permission. But an American air transport on the same route 

 would have to get express permission from Canada to fly 

 over the same waters. The only "free" air lies over the oceans, 

 beyond the three-mile limit. 



"The right of 'innocent passage/ " the air lines explained, 

 "is basic to the development of international air transporta- 

 tion and leaves open for later negotiation and agreement the 

 question of the right to engage in commerce by air." * 



Some American aviation experts fear that the granting of 

 reciprocal trading rights to foreign nations will expose our 

 air lines to dangerous foreign competition. They point out 



1 Italics ours. 



