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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0674.PDF
ffcWHT AUGUST IO, 1916, AVIATION IN PARLIAMENT. HOUSE OF LORDS. The Royal Aircraft Factory. IN the House of Lords on August ist, Lord Montagu had on the paper a notice to ask the Government whether they were prepared to circulate the recent Report on the * Royal Aircraft Factory ; what steps would be or had been • to carrv out its recommendations, and what alterations, if any, had been made in the higher staff at the factory. 'I tenable lord, said that lie liad on Thursday week deferred this 11 u« stion, originally put down two months ago, and the case he had to put had been strengthened in the interval because there had been an effort on the part of those responsible for the Royal Aircraft Factory to put their house in order. II... rejMjrt, he thought, justified any remarks he had ever made about the Royal Aircraft Factory. The expenditure this year would probably be about a million sterling, which was ii great deal for a factory which was theoretically doing experimental work. With regard to the figures of percent age, if was stated that Colonel O'Gorman had checked them, but be thought Colonel O'Gorman must unwittingly have misled the committee. He thought the number of men employed in the stores department—560—was an excessive number. With regard to the recommendation of the report that there should be skilled civil management of the factory, he thought that, if it was to continue in its present form, that was wise, but if it was going to continue only as an experi mental depot it did not matter. Passing to the report made by the Air Board to the War Committee, he congratulated tin Air Board on the courageous way in which they had bandied the matter ; but he thought it would be a pity if Colonel O'Gorman's services to the State should be lost in an experimental sens*-, and he was glad to see the suggestion that he should be appointed as consulting engineer to the Director- General of Military Aeronautics at the War Office. He cautioned the Air Board that, in his opinion, Sir David Henderson had far too much to do already. He was not only a member of the Army Council, and ki command of the R.F.C., but he was also the responsible head of the Royal Aircraft Factory. The time had come when that distin guished officer should choose whether he preferred to remain a member of the Army Council or the officer commanding the Royal Flying Corps, or to have nominal control of the Aircraft Factory. It was quite impossible that he should continue in the three capacities ; it would only lead to further trouble. It was quite clear that discipline had been slack and that there had been pilfering and excessive scrapping. Primarily, Colonel O'Gorman, as head of the factory, was responsible, but Sir David Henderson could not be exonerated, because he was the senior officer, and Colonel O'Gorman only did what he was told. , The other day he had made some statements before the Judicial Committee which had been shut out to a certain extent One of the charges was that there had been unfair preparations in connection with the visit of the King to the Royal Aircraft Factory. He had evidence which had been sworn to, and which had been taken down in his presence. One man said that the day before the visit machines—old, new, and partially wrecked—were piled in the shops, and that vacant shops were furnished with spare parts to provide an appearance of congestion, and that a photograph of one shop was taken for the War Office to show the congested state of the premises. He had that kind of evidence ad infinitum. He had a letter from the wife of a late member of that House, who said a very valuable artisan of theirs had been three months at the factory and had not done a full day's work. He had evidence of unsuitable people being employed on different jobs. For instance, here is a lad of about i~, unskilled and rather delicate, who was put on at £2 2s. a week as overlooker, to walk round and see if there was any smoking, &c. There was also the case of the man Mai Donald, who was charged at Aldershot with having unlawfully in his possession things belonging to the Aircraft Factory. The man made no secret of the fact that he was building at home an aeroplane of his own design ; and accord ing to his statement he was allowed to take away parts of the machine bv persons in authority at the factory. Some of the parts were so large, that it was impossible for them to be removed without the knowledge of those in charge. In fact, it was jooularlv remarked that if he were strong enough he could have taken away a whole shed. It was quite cleat- that there was a want of supervision at the factory. When this man had got back, after giving evidence before the Committee of Inquiry in Westminster Hall, he was arrested. It might have been a coincidence, but it was a curious kind of coincidence, especially after they had had a pledge that witnesses should not be victimised. Another witness on re turning to the Inquiry room to get some papers which he had left behind heard one officer say to another: "This is the adventurer who went up to give evidence against us," on which the other officer remarked : " Yes, you can never tell what sort of fellows you have in the factory these days." He thought those experiences pointed to an effort to browbeat and intimidate witnesses. He was one of those who thought the Government never did anything so well as the private individual. The Government factory was more expensive and less efficient than the factory run by an individual or company. What was wanted was a large trade in the private manufacture of aeroplanes, well established and strongly financed. There was no doubt that the best machines were those designed outside the Govern ment factory. Earl Curzon said the first two points of the question on the paper were answered by the publication of the report upon the Royal Aircraft Factory, and the report thereon of the Air Board. As. to the point in relation to changes in the higher staff of the factory, no one knew better than the noble lord that both business organisation and scientific knowledge were required in the running of so great a concern. Those two qualities were not necessarily found in the same person. It was for that reason that Colonel O'Gorman was taken to the War Office to attend to the scientific side by acting as consulting engineer to the Director-General of Military Aeronautics, and they were now searching for and hoped soon to find a first-rate business organiser <or the factory. He did not think the noble lord was quite fair in what he said as to the present position of Sir David Henderson. The noble lord gave the House to under stand that Sir David Henderson was a pluralist of an undesir able character, combining two or three functions which ought not to be found in the same individual. Nobody knew better than the noble lord that Sir David Henderson was placed upon the Army Council because he was the Military Director of Aeronautics, and nobody ought to be better pleased than the noble lord, who always urged the claims of the Air Service, that the head of the military branch of it should be able to enforce his views by means of his seat on the Army Council. The Royal Aircraft Factory was a War Office institution. It was started some time before the war. Therefore the Air Board had nothing to do with it up to the moment that they came into existence. That fact dispensed him from saying much in reply to the speech of the noble lord in regard to it. But he was bound to say that, having read the evidence put before the Committee of Inquiry, he was astounded, nay, even scandalised, at the manner in which gossip, rumour, invention, and charges—very -often wholly unsupported by evidence—were brought before the Committee. The noble lord himself gave evidence ; and he did not mean to imply that that evidence deserved the adjectives which he had used ; but he thought it was improper for the noble lord to come down to the House, after those charges were investi gated by the Committee, and repeat them in detail and at length. The officials of the factory declared that those charges were untrue. They absolutely denied the story that there had been " window-dressing " on the occasion of the Royal visit. As to the witness MacDonald, he asked for one day's leave and was absent two and a-half days ; during his absence he gave evidence before the inquiry, and 9a. his return boasted that " me and Montagu have got them cold." He was found to be in the unlawful possession of things taken from the factory, though he denied it on oath, and was arrested. Since the war began less than 2 per cent, of the whole of the aeroplanes of the country had been made in the factory. Nevertheless, in spite of the views that are held—I think he thought rightly held—by the noble lord as to the un- desirability of turning the factory into a considerable manu facturing centre, the Burbidge Committee recommended that the manufacture should be increased. No doubt that would be an excellent thing for the factory and from the point of view of the balance-sheet. But the reasons against it, which were really overwhelming, are in the first place that it is no part 6/2 *
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