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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0066.PDF
We have several times during the past What is few months conceived it to be our ^rh°?h duty to Pass severe criticisms on the W.R.A.F. ? administration and working of the Women's Royal Air Force. One of the results of those criticisms was that in certain directions an effort was certainly made to improve matters, and, we are assured, with some little success. But to judge from the stories that are being told in the Press and from letters which reach us direct from members of the Force, it is quite evident that there is something fundamentally wrong, and it would seem that a searching judicial enquiry is needed to bring the trouble to light and ensure justice being done all round. It seems to be fairly clear that the trouble originates somewhere near the top. The statements made by the Hon. Violet Douglas-Pennant certainly point that way, and it seems to us that it is absolutely necessary in the interests of those concerned in her allegations, as well as that of the public, that they should be tested before an inde pendent tribunal. In her statement published in several daily newspapers, she says she was asked in May last to take over the post of Commandant of the W.R.A.F., and actually assumed command in the following month. Her difficulties began early, for she says : " Immediately I started on my duties as commandant I was brought up against a particular officer, who told me he had promised five ladies high posts, and asked me to recommend them-to the Air Ministry for these positions. I had nothing what ever personally against these ladies, but I could not honestly recommend them for those important duties. I pointed out the difficulties, and suggested that I should put them in positions where they would receive the training necessary for the work. Lord Weir and Sir Godfrey Paine agreed with my views, and the ladies were told that they were either to take the junior posts or the Air Ministry would not require their services." These five ladies, however, refused to take the junior posts, and Miss Douglas- Pennant states that from that time she became the subject of the most bitter attacks. Shortly after wards, she tendered her resignation, which was declined, but some four or five days later she was, so she states, summarily dismissed on the ground that she was unpopular. An enquiry was held by Mr. Cecil Harmsworth, who is said to have told Miss Douglas-Pennant verbally and in writing that he was recommending the Prime Minister to make a full judicial enquiry. Later, it was stated that the results of Mr. Harmsworth's enquiry could not be made public because there was to be another, but so far nothing seems to have been done. Miss Douglas- Pennant says-, and we entirely sympathise with her point of view, whatever the rights and wrongs of the case may ultimately prove to be, that she has been practically cashiered and now rests under the stigma of the gravest misconduct. " I am," she says, " urging and pressing for a full enquiry, for it is manifestly and grossly unjust that people with a long and good service career can be shot out at a moment's notice, and I maintain that no-one should be dis missed on the ground of unpopularity." Taking the statements as they stand—and they have not so far been answered or controverted in any way—there seems to be the fullest subject-matter for a further enquiry. Who is the officer who promised good jobs to ladies who, the ex-commandant alleges, she found unfit to fill them, and what are his reasons or excuses for so promising ? It is a pity that Miss Douglas-Pennant has not taken the risk of a libel action and made his name public. Had she done so, she might have got the enquiry she wants in the Court of King's Bench, if the officer concerned had the temerity to bring an action. Then, why the sudden volte face alleged to have been performed by Lord Weir and Sir Godfrey Paine, who first of all refused to entertain Miss Douglas-Pennant's resigna tion of her post, and then, a few days later, seem to have collaborated in her dismissal ? Again, why has no notice been taken of Mr. Cecil Harmsworth's recom mendation that the questions at issue should form the subject of a judicial enquiry ? These are only a few of the questions that will have to be answered before the affair can be held to be closed. If only a part of the stories we have heard of the administration of the W.R.A.F. are near the truth, it is small wonder that a commandant who knew her business and intended to carry it out without fear or favour should have become unpopular at the outset. We know quite enough of it to be aware that some of the adminis trative anomalies would make fit subjects for the plot of a comic opera, but the pity is that it has all involved a shocking waste of public money. Nepotism has been rife in some directions, while in others real hardship has been inflicted upon women who either did not know the ropes for themselves or who had no one to pull strings for them. For those who either had influence or who could " wangle " things, the W.R.A.F. service has been by way of a rest cure, but for others it has been quite otherwise. An enquiry will certainly have to be held into the statements made by Miss Douglas-Pennant, and it will be more than desirable that the terms of reference of the commission should be extended to.take in the whole administration of the Force. If it is, we shrewdly- suspect that there will be more Kicks than O.B.E.s handed out to those who have been most activelj- eoncerned in the mal-administration. Allowing for all the difficulties of creating and carrying on such a Force during the War, our considered opinion is that the W.R.A.F. has been quite the worst run of the women's war organisations. • * • The general unsuccess of the Zeppelin The as an engine of attack in war, and the Possibilities jntense secrecy in which the develop- Airship rnent of the airship in our own Service has been wrapped during the period of the War, has rather tended to obscure the merits of the lighter-than-air craft. For it most certainly does possess distinctive merits of its own. In his address given in the City last week, General Sykes referred, we believe, for the first time officially, to the voyage made by a Zeppelin from Jamboli, in Bulgaria, to German East Africa and back. As a matter of fact, we knew at the time that this flight had been made, but the censorship naturally prohibited all reference to it. General Sykes' announcement, therefore, came as no surprise to us, but we imagine it must have set a good many people thinking very hard. The distance this airship covered in the course of its journey was not less than 7,000 miles, and may have been a good deal more, while the time occupied was about one hundred hours. Now, the official record for an airship flight is no more than 506 miles, though there is one of 745 miles awaiting recognition. Both
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