FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0465.PDF
JUNE I, i9l6- elusion that the Air Service was one of which the nation lud every reason to be proud. From almost humble beginnings at the com mencement of the war it had risen to very formidable strength. It employed tens of thousands of men, and thousands of machines, and great things had been accomplished by it. In initiative, enter prise, and courage our aviators were second to none in the world. As regards aerial work at the front, a ceaseless interchange of aerial amenities is going on. Anyone who read the bulletins from day to day might be convinced that our airmen need not fear com parison with Geiman avia'ors or any others. A daily series of almost Homeric combats were going on in the air, each one of which deserves almost a chapter in an epx. In these combats our men were showing that the mastery of the air—a phrase which he particularly disliked, and which he should use as little as possible —that the mastery of the air was a thing that oscillates from side to side, and if it expressed anything at all, res's as often, if not ofiener, with our men as with the enemy. As regards the defence of our own shores, if the enemy had not desisted from these murder- ous raids—and though he may be contemplating something bigger— yet at the same time it could not be denied that the defences toth of London and the country are much more formidable than they were a short time ago. The enemy's pilots were more chary about visiting vulnerable places which they know to be well defended. They flew at a great height, and they often returned without having effected anything. That and the increasing number brought down were causes for increasing satisfaction—at any rate they are teasons why anybody speaking for the air service should not be apologetic or disheartened. So much for the past. There remained a great deal to be done, particularly on the administrative side, both in co-ordinalii g effort, in supplying machines, and in the organisation of material. There they came to the application of scientific knowledge to the practice of this arm of war. That was a branch of the work with which lie would be cone rned. On the last occasion when the ques'ion of the air came before the House, an attempt had been made to introduce greater co-ordination into their system, to prevent the competition and overlapp ng known to exist between the two great fightirg dspartments, and particularly in regard to design and supply. He enrirety agreed with the two members of that Committee—Lord Derby and Lord Montagu—that the Committee was hampered from the start, and, in his belief, foredoomed to failure, by th? exceed ingly restricted nature of trie reference. After meetings on several occasions, extending over a period of some weeks, the two noble lords retired, but he should not like it to be thought that Lord Derby's Committee did nothing ; on the contrary, it accomplished real and valuable work, and cleared away many misunderstandings It seemed to him from the report of their proceedings, that Lord Derby was always seeking to guide the Committee in the right direction and that the Committee was always hovering on the brink of larger decisions. He agreed with Lord Derby that it was more than doubtful whether the Committee was empowered or expected to discuss policy. It certainly had no effective authority to arrive at a decision. It was in these circumstances that the Government were called upon to review the situation and to find a fresh s lution. Several alternative methods of procedure were before them. It would have been possible, but he thought it would have been futile, to reconstitute the Committee under another chairman, with a slight expansion of powers and perhaps another name. It might have been possible, but he thought it would have been inexpedient, to revert t» the stains quo ante and to dispense with the Committee or a board altogether. In that case the defence of the existing system would have rested with the two departments, as it has hitherto done, and in passing he thought that in many respects those two departments put up a much better defence of their ad ministrative action than a good many of their critics believe. He thought, moreover, it would have been impracticable, because un doubtedly the examination given to the existing system did reveal many flaws in its dual nature, and he thought the knowledge that had been acquired clearly pointed to the desirability of appointing some external authority with time to think, with power to coordinate and to supervise, and with a "»" ' effective appeal to what is, in these circumstances, the final tribunal, namely, the War Committee of the Cabinet Council. There were in reality only two solutions before the Government. One was the creation straightway of a separate Air Department with an Air Minister at its head ; the other the creation of a new authority with substantially larger powers than that enjoyed by Lord Derby s Committee and much wider instructions. A noble lord asked why the Derby solution was not adopted. It was because there * as not that measure of agreement between the War Office and the Admi ralty which would have rendered such solution easy. It would have been and indeed was resisted by the Admiralty. The mtroduction of so large a scheme could, he was convinced, only have been accomplished at the present time at the cost of dislocation, ot fricioi, of the rupture of long standing ties and associatio-is, which would not have been desiub> at any time, but would have been perilous at this stage of the war. He knew that these view* were taken very strongly by Lord Derby himself. Ardent reformer as he is, the undertaking of so complete a change at the present time was, in his view, not to be thought of. The utmost that Lord Montagu had to say for the adoption of this larger plan was thu it was better to be too soon than too late. As a general proposition that wa» sound, but he submitted that, in war time more especially, there- was a mean between the two which was better than either log KXM or too late, and that was just the right moment. The whole of the contention of that part of his speech was that the present it not the exact moment at which that large chaiiRf should lie effected. Something had been said about lh» views entertained by the Army and Navy with respect to the uic of aircraft by them and of the close connection which that branch of the service bears to their work. Although he did not altogether share those views, he thought it was only fair tint the point of view of the departments concerned should be borne in mind. Both these department looked upon airaork as an integral put of their policy and their organisation. There wis a further difficulty in proceeding to more drast'c so'utions The ta-k of setting up a new department, with full executive authority, with large financial powers, wih complete control of the ftrsotine/ of the two hranchei of the Air Service, with full responsibility for contracts, design, and supply of machines, with an indep:nden' organisation and s aff, would hsve involved very great and continuous effort in the midst of a great war, which strained every energy to the utmost, and might, he th night, have exercised a disturbing influence. He pointed out that there is no analogy with the Ministry ol Munitions. The Minister of Mumtioiu was appointed as a Minister of Supply for a particular class of article for the Army. As Mioister of Munitions he has nothing to do with strategy or policy, which marks the case off very sharply from the Air Service. Then there were practical objections arising out of pay and discipline to the organisation of a single Air Service at the present lime. These were the main consideration* whieh decided the Goveinrrier.t against embarking on so great an experi ment in the middle of a war. He added that such an Air Ministry or Air Department was destined to come. He saw before myself, before many years had passed—it might even lie sooner—a dr am of a single service under a single head, under a single roof, with a single organisation. Such a unificati m he could not believe to be beyond the adminis trative genius of their race. Hut if he was right in that, he wo-. Id sooner see it com'—as in the past few months he bad seen military compulsion come—as the result of a concordat between all those who are interested in the matter, as the result of a cord'al acceptance ot the principle by both services and lioth departments, with the avowed support of the Secretary of State for War and the First Lard of the Admirslty. The Board which had been appointed would undoubtedly hold this consummation in view. It was one of their duties to explore the ground and to examine the possibilities of such a solution. Oi.e day it would lie their business to report to His Majesty's Government on the matter, but in the meantime he thought he could assure the House that they had more immediate and pressing duties to perform. For the reasons stated he could not accept Lor 1 Montagu's motion. It was really one, rather cleverly disguised, for the immediate creation of an Ait Department. Lord Montagu said he particularly disclaimed any idea of an Air Ministry at presen*. Earl Curzon said that if he might take the terms of the motion, Lord Montagu was really proposinc that there should bfl no longet divided con rol or responsibility of two separate departircivs and tfiat l«ilh men and material should at once IK concentrated under one control. Lord Montigu : For the purposes of »upply. Earl Cunon said he would really ask the noble lord lo consi l«r the position of the Board and himself in the mat cr. He had told them that he meant to give them his support, that he did not want to embarrass him, and at the same time he was going to ask them to vote for a motion which practically condemned the organisation of the department for which he wa« responsible, and pronounced in favour of a revolution which for the reasons he had given if wan impossible at the moment to carry oit. If the noble lord carried his motion to a division, LordCurron asked the House, out of regard for the work which they bad undertaken in e'reum'lances of great difficulty, to be kind enough not to follow him into the lobbv. The Bjard differed substantially from Lord Derliy's Committee in composition, intention, and in powers. It was directly charged' with thinking out and formulating a policy and making MDOtlV mend at ions to the War Committee of the Cabinet. For those reasons it was decided that the Board should have as president m Cabinet Minister, not because a Cabinet Minister knows more—
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
