The Origins of Airmail in China & Hong Kong 1919-1922

24 JULY 1920 BRITISH AEROPLANE’S RECORD FLIGHT IN NORTH CHINA Captain Mackenzie, who has made so many flights in Peking, made one of his most remarkable flights on Thursday morning when he piloted an S.V.5 to Tientsin and back. The journey took a shade under one hour and ten minutes according to the Peking correspondent to the “Peking and Tientsin Times”. The journey to Tientsin took exactly thirty minutes, and the return trip forty on account of the heavy wind having to be forced. (Millard’s Review) FRENCH INTERESTED IN SOUTH CHINA FLYING It is rumoured that the French Government has announced its readiness to aid French aircraft constructed in China by selling them material, now in China, which was originally intended for Russia. Two French companies, the Economic Organisation Bureau and the Compagnie FranceColombienne, are studying the possibilities of sending representatives to China, and two other firms are contemplating the sale of machines to Chinese enterprises. Meantime it is reported that the aerial mail service now being organised in Indo-China will comprise 30 aeroplanes of the Breguet type and will cover all towns from Hanoi to Haiphong, to Nam-dinh and to Thairguyen. 4 AUGUST 1920 Extract from Air Intelligence Report No. 229. The following are extracts from the Far Eastern Press: AIR MAIL SERVICE FOR CHINA. Lieut. Colonel Smallwood, who is superintending the delivery of the Handley-Page aeroplanes purchased by the Chinese Ministry of Communications, claims that the flying boat is the most suitable type of machine for the Shanghai-Hongkong and the Shanghai-Hankow mail service. It will be possible for one to post a letter at five in the evening in Shanghai, and it will be delivered next morning in Hankow. The Hongkong route will be almost entirely by water. Colonel Smallwood believes that two landing stations should be established - on water and on land - and Shanghai should be made the terminus of the Yangtse route. A Shanghai-Pekin air mail is possible this spring.

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