Imperial's Scot

Until last winter Britain's Imperial Airways, Ltd. and associated companies had bumbled along the farthest flung set of air routes in the world without evoking any more serious criticism than a collection of pointed smoking-room jests. There was a fanciful yarn about India's long-delayed independence; the guess was that it might be coming via Imperial. Spicier was a tall tale about a woman who gave birth during a flight to India. Politely taxed by a flight clerk for boarding the plane in her condition, she became highly indignant. "I'll have you know," she replied hotly, "that when I got on this ship I was not pregnant."

But despite the obvious point of such jibes, Imperial Airways continued to dawdle serenely along, moderately safe, unduly slow.

Last December, however, a Parliament-inspired committee of inquiry headed by Lord Cadman began poking into Imperial's affairs. Few months later it decided the company was defective in management, intolerant of suggestion, unyielding in negotiation. It recommended complete reorganization.

Last week, the Government thought they had found the right man to bring Imperial Airways up to snuff. That man was starchy, six-foot-six Sir John Charles Walsham Reith, a dour, egg-headed, ascetic Aberdonian who since 1922 has had his puritanical thumb on the destinies of the British Broadcasting Corp. Son of a preacher, trained as a Clydeside engineer, he got his job with B.B.C. by the improbable method of answering a want ad for a general manager.

To persistent criticism about his program generally, and austere Sunday broadcasts in particular, Sir John's answer has been: "So long as I am the director-general there will be no change in the character of Sunday programs. . . . The B.B.C. has never attempted to give the public what it wants. It gives the public what it ought to have." While Edward VIII was Prince of Wales, an observer remarked: "Every year the Prince gets more democratic, and Sir John Reith more regal."

For this sort of rule at B.B.C., Sir John's salary has been about $35,000 annually. As director of Imperial Airways, he will get $50,000. To Imperial, organization under Sir John Reith may well mean the installation top-to-bottom of the rigid quarter-deck punctilio he commanded at B.B.C. As if in anticipation of Sir John's coming, the company last week had in strict training a corps of "flight clerks" for the jobs stewardesses do on U. S. airlines. In trim-cut uniforms they must work 18 hours a day for $25-$30 a week, employ impeccable manners at all times.

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