FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0198.PDF
really cannot refrain from pointing out that even if Ireland has no aeroplane contracts, there are certain other things in which she is equally lacking. True, we have aeroplane contracts in England—but we also have conscription, which Ireland has not. Then, the point is made that the fact of Ireland having no contracts to build aircraft is "an injustice to the British Army in France." Well, there is no need for our contemporary to unduly vex itself about that. There are other injustices to the British Army in France, and not least among those injustices is the fact that there are at the present moment some quarter of a million or more young Irishmen of military age swaggering about Ireland in civilian clothes, secure from the military service which is enforced upon Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Welshmen, to say nothing of our Canadian brothers across the seas. We might advance other illustrations of matter "* that affect us here in England but which have no application to Ireland, such, for example, as food and drink restrictions, but these are of relatively minor importance. We should advise the Freeman's Journal to try another tack. By all means argue that the decision of the Air Council is bad from the business point of view, or is against public policy or something of that sort, but to construe a decision of the kind into an " injustice " to Ireland ( is in all the circumstances, simply grotesque. FEBRUARY 21, 1918. The disclosures made in the Report of the Select Committee to enquire into the expenditure on stationery and printing for the House of Commons and the public service generally help to bring home to the public the appalling waste of money that seems inseparable from Government administration. In one department alone—the name of which is not stated, more is the pity—it is recorded that some 62 tons of paper had to be thrown away because someone had ordered huge supplies of posters and leaflets, without any regard to the numbers that might be lequired. The orders, moreover, were not, it is stated, given in competition, so that the lowest prices were not obtained. This is only one example of the methods pursued by the Government depart- ments in a time when the unfortunate civilian is being adjured by all he holds holy to save paper, and when useful publications are at their wits' end to get enough paper to go round. The newspapers are restricted down to the last possible ream of paper— and the Food Ministry, as a result of panic, issues a stupidly useless sugar card and has to get it reprinted ! No newspaper may use a sheet of paper by way of a contents' bill—and a Government Department wastes over 60 tons as a result of action which no business manager could take and keep his post. It is ?.U too tragic- •...—._. , " British Official." A Scout aeroplane on the British Western Front being prepared for a moonlight flight. 194
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
