FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0507.PDF
Flight, May 17, 1913. Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interest*, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 229. (No. 20, Vol. V.)] MAY 17, 1913. ("Registered »t the G.P.O.T [Weekly, Price 8d. L as a Newspaper. J I Post Jfree. Sid. ightt. Editorial Office. 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1B28. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15J. ad. Abroad aoj. od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: Doing it 011 the Cheap ' What Should be Done with Public Subscriptions'.' Men of Moment in the World of Flight: Mr. K. Blackburn Armchair Reflections. By The Dreamer The Bristol Monoplane (with scale drawings) Fifth London Aviation Meeting, Hendon Royal Flying Corps From the British Flying Grounds Royal Aero Club. Official Notices •Questions in Parliament Liverpool to Raise a Flying Corps British Notes of the Week ... Foreign Aviation News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A Correspondence PACK ... .W9 ... 530 ... 53' ... S3* ... 536 ... S40 — 544 •« 545 ... 548 ... 5<S ... 54S ••• 54* ... 550 ... 551 — 554 EDITORIAL COMMENT. n . . Col. Seely's suggestion to the Lord Mayor on the^Cheap. °^ Liverpool, contained in a letter of apology for absence from a recent meeting, amounts to nothing short of begging on behalf of the Government. He suggests in unmistakable language that if Liverpool wants to spend any considerable sum of money on the encouragement of aeronautics in this country, that the presentation of a complete squadron to the Royal Flying Corps at a cost of about ^40,000 would be regarded as very acceptable by His Majesty's Ministers. We daresay it would ; but why should Liverpool be expected to put its hand in its pocket to supplement the niggardly vote of the Government ? Of all the things that have happened yet, this request by the Minister of War for the private financing of his parliamentary programme throws the most intense side-light on to the true inward ness of the present situation. In fine, it completely lets the cat out of the bag. If Liverpool were to comply with the War Minister's request, Liverpool would have to buy in the same market as the Government, and if Liverpool's generosity were to be of immediate service to the nation, the market in which Liverpool would have to buy must at the present moment possess a capacity for output greater than the demand made upon it at present by the Government. In short, the Government could complete the establish ment of its own Royal Flying Corps more quickly than it is doing if it chooses to spend the money at once. Col. Seely has persistently stood by his original programme, which is to establish the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps on a scale suited to the requirements of an expeditionary force. We are not in the least satisfied that such an establishment is adequate to the military needs of this country, but we do thoroughly support Col. Seely and General Henderson and Major Sykes when they argue, as they have done, that the right policy of progress is to get the present programme completed before starting on another. What we grumble at, and what we contend the nation has a right to grumble at, is the parsimonious vote provided by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for capital expenditure to be devoted to the immediate equipment of the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps with its transport, barracks, and other requirements that consti tute a large fraction of the initial establishment charges. We presume that Col. Seely is not prepared to expand his present programme merely because someone offers him the price of an additional squadron. We may argue, therefore, that the squadron that Col. Seely is so willing to accept at Liverpool's expense is one of those already earmarked for creation in the Government's programme. To cut a long story short, Col. Seely cannot get his colleagues in the Ministry to finance the Work that he has planned and to which they, in common with himself, are committed. Col. Seely comes in for a good deal of abuse, but everyone knows quite well that Ministers are often made to appear ridiculous through having the ground cut away from beneath their feet by others who lie snugly out of sight in the ditch so made. Loyalty to their colleagues prevents them from exposing the real mole and it is only from some unguarded remark that is sure to slip out sooner or later that one ultimately learns whereabouts'to place the blame. We have suspected for a long time that Mr. George and his satellites at the Treasury have been the real obstacles to progress. There is not much doubt about it in the light of Col. Seely's present action in respect to Liverpool, and we hope that Liverpool will not be so foolish as to play into the hands of Mr. (ieorge by I'. 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
