FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0819.PDF
Flight, July 25, 1918. si First Aero Weekly ij\ 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. No. 500. (No. 30. Vol. X.) JULY 25, 1918. rweekly, Price 6d.L Post Free, 74. and The Aircraft Engineer. Editorial Office •- 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. 2. Telegrams: Tmditur, Westcent, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1818. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free : United Kingdom .. *Ss. id. Abroad 33J. od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment : ^ ' PA(;E A Question of Good Faith "r B17 Why not Bomb Frankfort ? 818 Air Force Control.. .. .. .. .. .. .• . • •• 818 Future Air Warfare .. .. '.. .. • • • • • • • • 818 The Transatlantic Flight 819 The Table of Precedence ' .. • • 820 Honours .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. •. .... 821 The Pfalz Single-Seater Fighter (with scale drawings) .. .. .. 822 The Roya! Aero Club. Official Notices 828 The Roll of Honour 828 A Fokker Biplane of Recent Type.. .. .. .. .. .. . 829 " X" Aircraft Raids 831 AirUms from the Four Winds 832 The Passage of the Atlantic 5 The Flight of an Aeroplane at Different Altitudes. By Louis De Bazillac 836 Personals 838 The Royal Air Force 840 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information .. .. • .. . 842 Aviation in Parliament .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 843 Company Matters . .. 844 Correspondence .. ..... .. .. .. .. .. .. 844 Imports and Exports, 1917-1918 .. ;. .. .. .. .. .. 844 ' Newspapers are an essential port of our war organisation." Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service. •HE terms of the recently-issued an- nouncement of the Air Council with reference to overseas service chevrons are, to put it mildly, most extra- ordinary. For some reason, known only to the powers that be, it has apparently been decided to deprive officers and men who have served abroad of the only mark that distinguishes them from the thousand and one who have spent the whole of . n . their service—not necessarily unequalA Question ; • , j ,-, J n • of in importance—during the war inGood Faith. " cushy " jobs at home. What is at the back of it all we do not profess to know. We are aware of the reasons assigned, but, put plainly, these do not amount to a row of pins. So far as we are able to see, the Air Council has abso- lutely no case for its decision, while there is every argument against it. It is a decision that is bound to cause the most acute dissatisfaction among the officers and men concerned, and that, apart from any- thing else, is an aspect of the matter which certainly ought to have been taken into consideration before the step was taken. The personnel of the Royal Air Force is being put into a new and distinctive uniform, as originally advocated in " FLIGHT," mainly for the reason, as Major Baird told the House of Commons only the other day, that its morale will be improved by the wearing of a dress which at once separates it from those of the other Services. Yet, immediately after taking this decision—which is an absolutely sound and wise one—the Air Council counters it by one that is likely to be gravely prejudicial to the morale, which it says it is so anxious to create and preserve. The decision, we repeat, is a foolish one, but it is far more than that. It is a distinct breach of faith as between the Air Council and the personnel who are affected by it. First of all, we are not going to argue whether the issue of these chevrons was a good move on the part of the Army Council and the Admiralty. We are quite aware that there are two opinions as to that, but the fact stands out that they were issued, and that a great many officers and men of the two older Services qualified for and received them, and have been wearing them as badges of pride for a considerable number of months. Now, to satisfy the caprice of someone in authority, they are to be taken away. In the memorandum of procedure for the constitution of the Royal Air Force it is laid down, among other things, that no officer or man trans- ferring to the R.A.F. from the Navy or Army is to suffer on account of so transferring in pay, pension, decorations or rewards. These active service chevrons are clearly in the nature of rewards for services rendered, and to put the matter plainly, the Air Council has no right, under the terms of its own memorandum, to take them away from officers and men who gained them in another service altogether. What the Council cares to do in the matter of issuing further chevrons for service in the R.A.F. itself is entirely another matter. If it thinks they are meaningless forms of reward, it is entitled to its opinion, and can make whatever regulations it pleases, and, possibly, no one has a right to grumble. But to take away those that have been gained before the Force came into being is ultra vires its own ruling. : F 2 \
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
