Pan Am In & Out

With bland Postmaster General James Aloysius Farley primed to send her on her way and excitable Philippine President Manuel Quezon ready to receive her, the lithe new flying boat China Clipper last week floated in San Francisco Bay. On her first flight to Manila she was to carry a full load of mail, a crew of five, no passengers. Having postponed the trip once for stamp-collectors, Pan American Airways officials vowed that this time the great ship would leave on schedule--at 3:30 p. m. Pacific Time, Nov. 22.

Pan American's pleasure at the start of its newest, greatest airline was somewhat dulled last week by the sudden necessity of abandoning one of its oldest lines--a Mexican subsidiary named Aerovias Centrales. Started in 1929, it served Los Angeles, El Paso and Mexico City where it connected with P. A. A.'s South American system. Using five Lockheed Electra monoplanes, it claimed the fastest airline schedule in the world (175 m.p.h. average), never killed a passenger. In face of a 1932 law that no foreigners could fly Mexican transport planes, Aerovias Centrales persisted in employing only U. S. pilots. Not until last June was that law enforced. Then radical Brigadier General Francisco J. Mujica, Secretary of Communications, granted Aerovias a period in which to train Mexican pilots. Last week he suddenly declared the time up.

Promptly the company announced there were not enough good Mexican pilots to man its five planes, that it refused to fly passengers behind untrained men, that it would quit operations at once. To General Mujica went many a pleading letter from the company's 225 Mexican employes, who feared losing their jobs. To President Lazaro Cardenas, too miserable with Malta fever to be interested, went the thanks "of Mexico's Association of Military Pilots..

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