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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0323.PDF
Flight, March 28, 1914. ^ ft S pi* j ^ First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. MTo. 274. (No. 13, Vol. VI.)] MARCH 28, 1914. ["Registered at the G.P.O.T L as a Newspaper, J rWeekly, Prtoe 3d. L Post Free, 3W. rttL Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... i$s. od. Abroad » oti. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: What is Wrong with the Military Wing ? Men of Moment in the World of Flight : Mr. H. J. Thomas The Olympia Show : The Exhibits Engines Royal Aero Club. Official Notices The Monaco Rally From the British Flying Grounds Flying at Hendon Accessories at Olympia British Notes of the Week Foreign Aircraft News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A PAGE • 323 • 325 . 3=6 • 337 • 34= • 343 • 344 • 346 • 347 • 349 • 349 • 35» EDITORIAL COMMENT. What is Wrong with the Military Wing? Evidently there is something most radically wrong in the Military Wing of the R.F.C., unless Mr. Joynson-Hicks was very far out in the facts he put for the confirmation or contradiction of the Secretary of State for War in the House of Commons on Tuesday night last. Mr. Joynson-Hicks challenged the statement made •by Col. Seely on the introduction of the Army Estimates, that the Military Wing had 161 machines "in possession." Now, without wishing to split hairs, and taking Col. Seely's qualifications in their broadest sense, we take this to mean that, allowing his own basis of two machines " in possession " for one ready to fly, the Military Wing should at the time of the War Minister's speech, have had at least eighty machines ready to fly—ready to accompany the Expeditionary Force, if it should be called out of the country. If words mean anything at all, that is what Col. Seely meant to convey to the House. Now, if the figures submitted by Mr. Joynson- Hicks are correct—and as the War Minister carefully refrained from contradicting them—the Military Wing has but forty-two machines which can be described as being ready for instant work. Of these, thirty-two were •of the B.E. type, which it is alleged have been banned from flying until some conclusions relative to recent accidents have been reached by the Court of Enquiry, which, it is said, is to be constituted to deal with the question of these accidents. Further, Mr. Joynson- flicks gave particulars of other machines which he said were under the official ban so far as flying is concerned, which would reduce the total of effective machines to fourteen or fifteen, distributed between five flying squadrons. On the face of it, a most deplorable state of things is disclosed. Either Mr. Joynson-Hicks is right in his figures or he is not. If he is, then we repeat what we said last week—that it is time someone was hanged. If he is not, then why, we would ask, did not Col. Seely set him right on the spot, instead of tem porising with promises of information to be given at some future time ? When Col. Seely introduced the Army Estimates, he most distinctly said that the Military Wing had in its possession 161 aeroplanes, and allowed it to be under stood by implication that this number meant machines ready in ordinary circumstances to fly. It is idle to argue that the outside public, unlearned in the niceties of Parliamentary language, would be able to read into the right hon. gentleman's speech, the reservation that 160 really means 80. To the ordinary person 160 means 160—neither more nor less, and it is with this in mind that we are most deliberately of opinion that Ministers of the Crown should make their statements to Parliament. The practised dialectician may be able to distinguish between the many subtleties employed by Ministers with unpleasant facts to disguise, but the man in the street is not exactly in the same position. After all, it is he who employs these heads of Departments, and the least he has a right to ask for is a plain and unvarnished statement of the truth as it exists. In these matters of vital concern, which affect our readiness for defensive or offensive war, it is surely essential for the country to know the truth, and we cannot pretend to understand the particular code of ethics governing these Ministerial statements which appear deliberately designed to mislead. This is a hard term to use, we admit, but we think there is strong justification for its use. We ourselves, who probably follow matters connected with military aviation with a rather keener interest than that taken by the ordinary person, certainly gathered from Col. Seely's statement that all was well with the Military Wing. Indeed, in our comments on the speech he delivered in introducing the Estimates, we applauded the things he said. We expressed ourselves as being satisfied with the amount of C 2
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