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Abstract
This article will examine the involvement of the Empire Press Union, including prominent early members like Lord Northcliffe and its founder Sir Harry Brittain, in the development of imperial air services as part of a larger ongoing study involving India, Australia and New Zealand. The main focus will be on the first three decades of the organization (1909–39) and on its regular conference activity which correspond with the pioneering period of aviation in Britain and in the antipodes. The press, as will be shown, had a commercial stake in the pioneer aviation story, while the Empire Press Union, for reasons to be outlined below, had a strong interest in Imperial Airways’ plans to develop the ‘longest air route in the world’ to that time. The focus of this analysis is inevitably limited: it does not, for example, deal with the ambitious British airship experiment which competed for funds and publicity with aviation, albeit with tragic outcomes. In contrast with the triumphalism of traditional communication and press narratives, it uncovers a complex faltering set of developments in which the Empire Press Union, both for altruistic and self-interested motives, played its part. In general terms, this involvement also serves to confirm that the Empire Press Union and its elaborate conferences paid increasing attention to new and emerging technologies like aviation and broadcasting in the interwar years. Moreover, this interest was not solely a response to the commercial challenges which such inventions posed to newspapers and print journalism; rather it reflected the willingness of the Press Union leadership, both in Britain and elsewhere, to harness such developments in the interests of speedier and cheaper imperial communications.
Acknowledgements
Research for this article was undertaken with the support of the Australian Research Council. Thanks also to Darlene Bowen for assistance with its preparation.
Notes
1. William E. Hughes, ‘Air Mails in Great Britain 1914/1925’, Chronicles of Icarus 2 (n.d.) (Hocken Collection, University of Otago).
2. Select Committee on Beam Wireless Charges Australia to England, Australian Parliament. Senate, Journals 1 (1929).
3. EPU newsletter (Sept. 1929), ICS 121 2/1–3.
4. EPU newsletter (Sept. 1929).
5. Australian Parliament. House of Representatives, Debates, 1932–33, 1299–1300.
6. ‘Smithy's Plans’, Sydney Sun (2 Dec. 1933) and Goldberg Advertising Agency to H.M. Mackay 21 Mar. 1933 in H.M. Mackay Papers (Alexander Turnbull Library, Folder 20, MS 0419).
7. ‘Smithy's Plans’, Sydney Sun (2 Dec. 1933).
8. Matthew CitationWright, Wings over New Zealand. A Social History of New Zealand Aviation (Auckland: Whitcoulls, 2002), 76–77. F. Maurice Clarke Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library (MSX-7059).
9. New Zealand Observer 24 Jan. 1940: 7 in Clarke Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.
10. Brendan Bracken to Leo Amery, India Office (19 Sept. 1941, L/I/1/611, British Library, London).