Teheran would shortly be extended to Baghdad. Ettel said that he did not know who had written the article, but he had sent certain figures to Baghdad which had obviously formed the basis of the article. Clive appears to have been slightly annoyed by what he described in a letter to the Foreign Office as “a clever piece of propaganda on the part of Junkers”. He told Ettel that Imperial Airways would not be deterred from their plan of establishing an air route to India by any action of the Persian Government. He went on to say that next month a number of Southampton flying boats were making the journey via the Persian Gulf to India, and that if those flying boats were a success, it would not be impossible for Imperial Airways to establish an air route from Basrah to Karachi along the Gulf wholly independent of the whims of the Persian Government. The journey by the RAF Southampton flying boats was indeed a success. Four Supermarine Southamptons left Felixstowe on 14th October 1927 and arrived at Bushire on 12th November 1927. Two days later the flight left Bushire for Henjam, and went on via India to Singapore, arriving there on 28th February 1928. [Erwin Ettel – Germany’s Envoy to Iran, 1939; SS-Brigadeführer, 1941; SS-Hauptsturmführer, 1944; Foreign Policy Editor for Der Zeit 1950-56 under the pseudonym "Ernst Krüger".] 30 September 1927
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