340.1115A/1635: Telegram
The Chargé in the United Kingdom (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 29—7:55 p.m.]
3907. Department’s 3607, November 27. The Air Attaché informs me that the airline to Lisbon is not a real commercial service. It ceased to be such on the outbreak of war and is now a quasi-governmental service operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation for the Government. The Air Ministry dictates the routes, number of passengers to be carried, etc. There are only two short flying boats available weekly for this service, all other planes having been commandeered by the Government for military purposes from November 27 to December 25 inclusive. We have 18 Americans scheduled to travel on this service at the request of this office. There are in addition 16 American newspaper correspondents booked between these dates by the Ministry of Information. During that period there should be, weather permitting, 11 flights with 8 passengers per flight making a total of 88 passengers of which 34 will be Americans. In addition, we have requests for 8 or 10 pending who cannot possibly be taken care of until sometime in January next. The Civil Air Administration states that each British Government department has requested that it be guaranteed at least one place on each plane for officials traveling on Government business but due to limited number of aircraft and limited number of passengers that can be carried on each plane this request cannot be complied with.
If the British are successful in obtaining the use of the Dutch KLM Douglas DC3’s a great deal of the congestion should be relieved. The British will not, however, permit the Dutch aircraft to be manned by Dutch crews whose families are still in Holland as they do not trust the complete loyalty of these pilots and crews. The Dutch Government refuses to turn over machines to the British to be flown by British personnel because it resents British suspicion of their own people.
There is no doubt that those Americans here who desire to go face almost unsurmountable difficulties in obtaining transportation from England to the United States. The Embassy has made every effort to assist them and the British air transport authorities have been accommodating particularly in cases of officers and employees of our Government; but efforts to induce the British to remove their own priority passengers who are almost invariably traveling on business connected with prosecution of the war to make room for American private citizens involves obvious difficulties and embarrassment.
[Page 177]There will of course continue to be complaints from Americans unable to leave and they will become more frequent and less patient as time goes on and living conditions in England become harder. It will be possible as at present to answer some with reminders of former opportunities to leave by American ships that were not availed of and to some it will be polite to respond with greater circumspection; but all can, if the Department concurs, be told that this is not a problem which the British, involved in a major war, should be asked to solve for us, and that their misfortune in being barred by the Neutrality Act79 from traveling in accordance with their desires would not justify the Embassy, except in cases of unquestionable urgency or unusual hardship, in pressing priority claims for them for passage on the Lisbon planes.
- Approved November 4, 1939; 54 Stat. 4.↩