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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0533.PDF
MAY 31, 1917. ONE HUNDRED AEROPLANES FROM OVERSEAS. THE outstanding event at the eleventh annual meeting of the Overseas Club on Empire Day, May 24th, was the pre- sentation by Mr. Walter Long, Secretary for the Colonies, to Lieut.-General Sir David Henderson, K.C.B., D.S.O., of a cheque for the purchase of the 99th and 100th Aeroplanes given by members of the Club overseas to the Royal Flying Corps. Lord Northcliffe, who presided, read the following messages : From .Lord Stamfordham.—" I feel sure His Majesty will be interested and gratified to know that on Empire Day the Overseas Club will hand over to the Royal Flying Corps a cheque to pay for the purchase of the 100th aeroplane sub- scribed for by British subjects overseas." From Sir Henry Streatfeild.—" I have submitted to Queen Alexandra your letter of yesterday's date, and am desired by H«r Majesty to say how interested she is to hear that on Empire Day the Overseas Club is to hand over to the R.F.C. a cheque to purchase your 100th aeroplane. Her Majesty has a very pleasant recollection of her visit to Aldershot in July, 1915,- when she named several aeroplanes presented by the Overseas Club to the Government, and congratulates you very cordially on the progress which has been made." From Lord Derby.—" You tell me that you have already presented 99 aeroplanes to the R.F.C., and I feel quite sure that, with the energy and generosity which characterise your club, before this letter is read thejnoney for the 100th will have been found. This is a feat on which the members of the club may well congratulate themselves, and it is one for which I desire, on behalf of the War Office, to express the most sincere thanks. But, if I may say so, it is not only for the material gift that I thank you, but for the interest that your club has taken in aircraft. Aviation is only in its infancy, and the more minds that can be brought to bear on its im- provement, and the more public interest is aroused in its advancement, the better it will be for this country, not only in war but in peace. " I mention its utility in peace because I believe in the commercial possibility of aircraft* in the future, and I am delighted to think that your Chairman, Lord Northcliffe, has been appointed Chairman of a Committee to consider to what commercial use it can be put. Lord Northcliffe's interest in aeronautics from its very beginning has had much to do with its present development, and I feel certain that his Commitee, aided, as I am sure it will be, by the Aero Club, will give ex- cellent advice in regard to the peace use of flying machines. Again I thank you for having given me this opportunity of testifying to the gratitude felt by the Army Council for the great generosity of the Over-Seas Club." In moving the adoption of the report, Lord Northcliffe said the Club's aircraft fund now amounted to more than £150,000. Mr. Bulkeley-Evans, Chairman of the Central Committee, in asking Mr. Walter Long to present to Sir David Henderson, Director-General of Military Aeronautics, a cheque for £3,000 representing the purchase money of the 99th and 100th aero- planes subscribed for by members of the Club as gifts to the R.F.C., said that Number 99 was the gift • of the Aborigines Rights Protection Society of the Gold Coast, and the machine would be named " Gold Coast Aborigines, No. 2." The 100th machine was the gift of the Government of British Guiana, and would be named " British Guiana, No. 2." He added that information had been received that another machine was to be given by Mr. Walter Greenacre, of Durban, and yet another by the Shanghaj Race Club, the fourth machine from this source. This brought the total number of machines subscribed for up to the present date to 102. Mr. Walter Long, after paying a tribute to Lord Northcliffe for founding the Club, said : " May I say how proud I am to be permitted, at the request of your president and your committee, to hand to my friend, Sir David Henderson, a cheque to which reference has been made. I should like""to take this opportunity to say in Sir David's presence that I know from personal experience how incessant and un- tiring have been his efforts in con- nection with our Army Air Service. " I also know from informa- tion I have had within the last few days, from men who have come from the other side, how emcinet and how wonderfully successful have been our airmen and their machines, and how magnificent has been the work that they have done for the Empire. Nobody can measure to-day, nor will anybody be able to do so until the war is over, what services these men have rendered in giving their lives by saving the lives of countless other men. Their work has been heroic, and I am very glad that it falls td°my lot, not only to bear this testimony in the presence of Sir David Henderson, but to convey to him your generous gifts. "Sir David, like myself, belongs to a Government organisa- tion. He and I have lcjgg ago realised that when you enter the doors of a public office m this country you will, if you are wise, make up your minjls at once to two inevitable consequences. One is that you will never succeed in doing anything right— because if you are right somebody else will claim that he originated the idea—and the second is that whoever may be pleased with what goes on there are sure to be a larger number of people who are displeased. A very modest sum will buy a Whitaker's Almanack,' and sufficient industry will enable them to find within its pages who are the people who are paid to discharge certain duties in our public offices. Having dis- covered that, they say it is the inalienable right of a British citizen to find fault with the man who is paid to do a job which manifestly, in their judgment, he does so inefficiently. There- fore, Sir David Henderson and I accept with due humility, and I hope with a full desire to take advantage of it, the correction we receive." . Sir David Henderson, in accepting the cheque, said the gift of 100 aeroplanes did hot exhaust what had been done by the Overseas Dominions for the R.F.C. Contributions to pur- chase aeroplanes had been received from overseas in addition to those given by the Club, while generous contributions had also been received by the R.F.C. Hospital. "With regard to these two particular aeroplanes," he continued, " I can give you now an assurance which I_could not have given before, and that is that whatever kind of aeroplane you wish to be purchased with this money, whether fighting machines or reconnaissance aeroplanes or artillery aeroplanes or training machines, thanks to the Air Board you can now get the best of the kind. I have had*to carry a heavy burden for five years in trying to get sufficient of the best kind of aeroplanes for our Royal Flying Corps. It has been a very difficult task. Now, thank God, we are likely to get them, not from me, but from the better men who have now got it in hand. I must also thank Mr. W. Long for what he has said about the R.F.C. . It is a very fine body, and is doing its work as well as anybody »uld do it. Our men are as gallant and fine a lot of young men as you will find in any army in the world. I wish to thank you very much for this contribution. We will try to make the very best use of it." H • , : • • H .• __ _ "i Russian Air Raids. - - ---' :\•'"£.•';• /•'• •' >-• ?> '- RUSSIAN seaplanes have attacked Constanza and Braila.At Constanza some ships in the harbour were sunk and several explosions and fires caused, while at Braila three depots weredestroyed, two reservoirs of naphtha set on fire, and fires caused on two laden sailing vessels. - :- ..-..- .. ^ v . The Wittemann-Lewis 90 h.p. model T.T. tractor biplane, built at Newark, N.J., U.S.A. Note the deep cowling totally enclosing the engine. 533
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