stand that it is still the international program that we are operating under.

Colonel GORRELL. Yes, sir. There are some things that I would rather not say for the record; but there are others which should be said for the record. Anything that happened in the past may go in the record. Anything that you are going to do in the future on that subject, I would rather discuss off the record.

Mr. BOREN. Would it be agreeable, Mr. Chairman, for me to suggest the Colonel put in his testimony here, at his convenience, a few of the salient points of the agreement made in connection with the first international picture?

The CHAIRMAN. We would be glad to have the Colonel extend his remarks or include in his remarks any phase of this matter that he pleases. I think it would probably be better to let the Colonel proceed along the line that he has developed.

Mr. BOREN. Yes; I do not mean to interrupt his statement or to ask him to do it now.

The CHAIRMAN. And then, he will be at liberty to put anything in that he pleases.

Mr. BOREN. Yes.

Colonel GORRELL. Mr. Chairman, in connection with this legislation you are thinking in term of the future of aeronautics, and the possible growth of aeronautics. If I may indicate this point some things in connection with the points which Mr. Boren has brought up, I will be very happy to do so.

The CHAIRMAN. You may.

Colonel GORRELL. I will be glad to do so.

The CHAIRMAN. The point of my suggestion was that we wanted to let you proceed in the way that you can best proceed according to your own judgment, as to how you will present your statement, but we will be glad to get the information finally that the gentleman from Oklahoma has asked for.

Colonel GORRELL. You have in paragraph 1 (b) of H. R. 1012, a provision for a study looking to post-war plans. That is extremely important, and I would like to give you one quick illustration.

I was at the peace treaty meetings in Paris after the last war and, along with a couple of others, handled for President Wilson the air portion of the treaty. I sat with Mr. Lansing, Mr. White, and others, with the gentlemen who were with the Committee of Ten, the Committee of Three, and so on.

One day the British suggested that in addition to the peace treaty we formulate a convention on aerial navigation.

If you stop and think, the countries of Europe are so small that air navigation through Europe is about like domestic air-line navigation in our 48 States. Some of the countries are so small that they may be crossed in a very short time. And, if you were going to cross them safely, you had to know, first, could you fly or not, and second, how could you be safe in doing so.

There were 23 nations that originally sat down at the table to draw the First International Convention on Air Navigation. It may interest you to know that the first thing each representative was asked to do was to stand up, give his name and the name of his country. When we came to one corner of the table a gentleman stood up and said, "My

name is so and so. I do not know the name of my country. It has not yet been created." You are probably going to find things like that happening some day in the future.

The CHAIRMAN. What year was that, Colonel?

Colonel GORRELL. That was in 1919, sir. The treaty was signed in 1919 by the people at the convention. Incidentally America never ratified that convention, but America did sign the Havana Convention some years later that contained relatively the same theory of fundamentals.

The treaty provided mainly for two points. One was, could you fly or not, and the other was, how were you going to do so with a reasonable degree of safety.

The British and the French came to the convention table perfectly prepared. They had plans as thick as that [indicating] all worked out. We received our notice about 2 days before the convention began. And, to illustrate how poorly prepared we were, I was told one night to get up a treaty for the next day. I am not a lawyer, so I got one to work with me. We sat down that night and wrote about one paragraph, threw up our hands, and we walked into that convention without being properly prepared.

I hope America will not do likewise again.

The British and French plans were marvelously worked out. We can expect that other nations of the world are now giving thought to what is going to happen when this war is over in connection with aeronautical matters and will have their plans worked out.

The treaty of 1919 provided that the air would not be free. We had talked about freedom of the seas, and so on. Practically everyone at that convention wanted freedom of the air. But one nation said that it would not let so and so-mentioning a country-fly across its borders and look down and see its military works. Therefore all of the rest said, "If you will not let us fly over your country, you cannot fly over ours." That resulted in a decision that each nation had sovereignty in the air above its land and territorial waters. The airplanes of other countries could not enter the air space of any nation without appropriate permission.

The second outstanding point in the treaty was the safety measures put into it. For example, the markings by lights of the airplanes you fly today are the same the world over-red on one side, green on the other, white on the tail, and so on. The lighting arrangements were taken from ships-green and red lights on either side of the ships became the green and red lights on airplanes. The white light was put on the tail so that a plane could be seen and not overtaken in flight. The lighting arrangement was necessary because flying had started across the English Channel from London to Paris, and was soon to start across the North Sea from London to some of the Low Countries, and so on. They had to mark the planes so that they would not fly into each other.

Getting back to one or two other points, Mr. Chairman, with reference to some of the contributions of the air lines-I have a note here before me indicating that the air lines voluntarily gave a certain number of planes to one of our allies which made possible the holding of one of the most important spots on the earth's surface.

I have a note here of flying certain things to that spot, without which the spot undoubtedly would have fallen, and, had that fallen, it might have meant defeat for our allies or a continuing of a war wherein we would have had to fight it maybe pretty much alone.

I can think of three other occasions when contributions of equipment took place and, although the results were not so vital, they were important.

I remember a call from the Chief of the Air Force who wanted certain pilots to fly to a certain place in connection with the contribution of the airplanes about which I first told you. We had started a year before to train instructors and pilots to increase our own forces. We turned them over to the Army. To that number were added personnel from our Army. Together they manned the planes and flew the equipment. They have been flying it for quite some time.

Our industry voluntarily went to the Army Air Corps when we saw the need for getting airplane spare parts abroad and said, "We have so many airplanes. We think you can do that job with X airplanes. Do you want them? If so, you can have them." The Army thanked us and we leased those planes to the Army. With the exception of three airplanes none has been returned to us.

When another one of our allies was cut off from the outside world, on a call from Washington, we turned over a sufficient number of airplanes to connect that ally with the outside world. We furnished six pilots per plane, giving them three crews for each. When America had to get ready to take some of her recent actions, we turned over about half of our remaining planes, and many of our important personnel. Of course, we have been teaching troop carrying and things of that nature. I am trying to stay away from details.

Mr. HALLECK. You are not getting any airplanes at all now?

Colonel GORRELL. None at all at the present time, sir, in our common carrier service.

Altogether our industry has turned over more transport airplanes than Hitler used as transports when he overran Holland in less than a week, though he used fewer divisions of ground troops than the people of Holland had.

Mr. BOREN. Colonel Gorrell, is it not a fact that you are not getting any new airplanes?

Colonel GORRELL. That is true as to our common carrier service. Mr. BOREN. And the fact that you are not getting any new airplanes is not necessarily related to any lack of safety, because of the overhaul policy which you have?

Colonel GORRELL. There is absolutely no relaxation whatsoever on safety. We are flying our equipment more than we ever flew it before and guarding it more carefully than ever.

Mr. BOREN. The point I wanted to stress was that a plane going through the overhaul that you have now established is equivalent to a new plane, regardless of the number of miles that it has been flown.

Colonel GORRELL. It is probably better than a new plane from the point of view of safety, because it is watched and gone over more thoroughly and more frequently.

Our industry turned over to the armed forces in the first few months of the war about a thousand of our most important management and technical personnel. Those people were inducted into the

Army and Navy to help start the military and naval air transportation services. By the investments you have made in civil aeronautics, you have built up what the President called a reservoir. Mr. Pogue also called it a reservoir. But, it is not a reservoir to be drained dry. It is better for it to be looked upon as seed corn to be planted in the appropriate spot in order that you may get back many times what you plant. Take one experienced man. You can use him as a nucleus around which you build a large force.

Today our industry is going into another project for the Army of the most important kind yet known, one that could not have been done at all if you had not built up the core that we have. It will be a very large project manned by skilled men who have made a lifetime study of the subject involved.

Our shops have been used for the repair of transient military and naval airplanes flying across the country. Thus the Army and Navy does not need to maintain so many stations and shops. They are thus able to relieve certain personnel to go with the troops. When an airplane going across the country has engine trouble, it can come to one of our shops, the man can land, have the plane serviced, sign a ticket, and along he goes without having to send for Army or Navy mechanics and specialists to take care of repairs.

Our shops have been used for what we call the revamping of fighting planes-bombers, and so on. The planes are built to standard specifications on the production lines, as if they were going to go into service in this country. But if they are to go to another country they need certain alterations so they can be used by that country. For instance one of our smaller airlines is doing that work. Before what was perhaps the most critical battle of 1942, it was given a very few days to get some bombers ready for that battle. The air line got the bombers ready in about half the time the Army had requested. Seven days later the same airplanes were dropping bombs on a very dangerous enemy during a very dangerous situation. That was accomplished by a small company.

Once upon a time some people said that, if war comes, we should break up the small airlines. That was wrong. It was old-fashioned thinking. During 1937 the Army changed its teaching in its schools on that point. In 1937 our country's war plants were changed to preserve the small companies as well as the transcontinental and international companies. The Civil Aeronautics Act of 1938 put behind the small companies the credit they needed and made it possible for them to live and grow.

Incidentally the larger planes which we are using today, without mentioning the names of them, four-engine planes which are used to haul personnel or cargo abroad were being built for the airlines. The contracts were taken over by the Army. The morning paper Isaid that our President rode part of the way in one of them.

I mention some of those high spots to let you know that we are putting our full resources behind the Government. We are training; we are repairing; we are revamping; we are overhauling; and so on. Without overstepping the bounds of propriety I may refer to one further point. By virtue of contractual arrangements with the Government, the air lines have placed their entire resources at the Government's disposal to be called upon at any time, anywhere, for

any purpose. It is probable that never before in the history of warfare in a democratic nation has an entire industry under private ownership put itself so completely at the disposal of its government for purposes so diverse and so intimately related to the armed services. And you will be gratified to know, I am sure, that the civilian agency which Congress created to have centralized responsibility for this industry is playing an essential part in this great effort. The Civil Aeronautics Board's annual report just published, with commendable restraint, takes all too little credit for the services it has performed.

One thing I intended to say is that there were not enough airplanes to go around. Right after the war broke out it was seen that we would have to organize a priority system. That was worked out by the Army setting up an office in a room in the Commerce Department, with our office having a room next to it, and the Department of Commerce, Administrator's Office, and the Civil Aeronautics Board's representative in the next room. We could yell to each other. Matters would come up quickly. You have to transport a special thing to a special convoy tomorrow morning. The Army would say yes or no as to whether there would be a priority. An Army officer would step into our office manned by an employee of the Air Transport Association and say, "I want so and so done at such and such a time." If it was against regulations or rules, we went to the next room to the Civil Aeronautics Board representative. After a very short time we were able to build up a schedule by which we were able to send the proper airplane to the proper city, pretty soon the cargo was loaded and off the plane would go to catch the convoy that had to sail at a certain time. And so it went day and night. It is still so functioning.

If you will look in the corner of the room, you will see a map of the airways; an airway map which has been taken from the annual report of the Civil Aeronautics Board. On it we have marked in color how tight is the priority situation on the air lines. In every spot where the color is red, the situation is highly critical and more airplanes should be allocated there as soon as our Nation can spare them. The greens are almost as critical, and the blues look like they will be critical in a very short time. The whites are the only ones which really are not critical. You see practically no white boxes on that map.

To answer Mr. Halleck's question, the day will come when the Nation can spare planes and that is when the air lines must have more airplanes. We are already throwing off certain mail, certain express, and certain people which ought to be carried if America is going to step up her productive program.

The country did a good production job last year. This year we are going to ask for more. We are going to get more by breaking bottlenecks; by not letting bottlenecks occur; by having critical supplies arrive at plants so that they will not have to shut down. Air transportation is one method by which it can be done when you have such a shortage of raw material and critical items as you have today. War is a situation in which waste and shortages always predominate and mistakes are being made and you have got to rectify them, no matter how good your plans may be. In such instances, air transport alone can get the desired results.