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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0378.PDF
Is so incalculable, as I shall have occasion to show in a few*moments, that it might be necessary to reinforce squadrons in disturbed areas even though we were pretty certain it will not be required now. It might, conversely, be quite easy to withdraw squadrons if peace is made on terms more favourable than we think. We ask for £45,000,000 on account, and £66,500,000 is the Estimate which we have arrived at as the outside cost required lor the coming financial year up to March 31 of next year. There is a note here comparing the £66,500,000 with £71,000,000 of last year. That is not an accurate comparison at all. The House might well say " this is a ridiculously small reduction of only £5,000,000 as compared with last year," but in last year's account of £71,000,000 there was only the Air Force Account not paid by the Ministry of Munitions and the War Office. The Ministry of Munitions added to that sum for purely Air Forces £113,000,000, the War Office £4,000,000. So that if we compare like with like we compare £66,500,000 with the total of £188,500,000. We have, in fact, reduced our Estimates almost exactly by two-thirds as a consequence of the armistice. How difficult it was to make a reduction—and nere again I say there are peculiar difficulties for the Air Force—will be seen by these figures. At the day when Ihe armistice was signed we had outstanding liabilities of £150,000,000 sterling for equipment for the Air Force, the greater portion of it being aeroplanes. We had facilities for making, and were, in fact, making aeroplanes at the rate of 4,000 a month, or nearly 50,000 a year. It is not a matter for which the Air Force can take credit, or discredit—but I think credit—because the Ministry of Munitions had to deal with this question of the cancellation of contracts. We did not, of course, require anything like the material repre sented by £154,000,000. The Ministry of Munitions have been able to reduce that sum by just over £89,000,000, leaving a total war liability to be liqui dated, some of which was required, but, of course, by no means all, of £66,000,000. Of that sum £39,000,000 will be expended this year and £26,500,000 falls in the next financial year. This is out of the £66,500,000 which we are asking for. One big item, the biggest item, is the £26,500,000 of war contracts, which represents the surviving liabilities which have been retained after the Ministry of Munitions have cancelled the other contracts. Mr. Joynson-Hicks : This will be wiped off in the 'current year ? Maj.-Genl. Seely: Up to March 31 this year we shall pay £39,000,000 ; during the next year, from March 31—this month—up to March 31 next year, we shall absorb the £26,000,000, An hon. member: Might we know approximately how much goes in com pensation and how much for goods delivered ? Maj.-Genl. Seely: I have some iniormation on the subject, but I think I had better not give it. It is rather long and complicated, and really a matter for the Ministry of Munitions. When the Vote comes up the Ministry of Munitions will be able to explain fully how he has liquidated this and other contracts, if the bon. member will put a question. It may be convenient to attempt to divide this sum of £66,500,000 into non-recurring and recurring expenditure. Ot non-recurring expenditure we put first this £26,500,000, but, ot course, although it is non-recurring expendi ture in the sense that it is a liquidation of war contracts, it would not be fair to tell the House that it could be all regarded as non-recurring ; because whatever number of squadrons we maintain will rpquire fresh equipment, not up to anything like a sum of £26,500,000, but still a very considerable sum year by year; so that, although we say that for the purposes ol strict accounting, £26,500,000 is non-recurring expenditure, it must be borne in mind that there is other expenditure of a similar nature that has to be met in succeeding years. Now we come to expenditure which is really, as well as theoretically, non recurring. The first big item is personnel, which is £6,000,000. That applies to all the personnel that is disappearing on the reduction of the Force, both officers and men. The next big item is lands and buildings. This represents part of the vast sums we were spending on aerodromes, hangars, meteorological stations, and all that portion which we cannot require, even when in times of peare we require a considerable expenditure in connection with military and civil aviation tor the same purposes ol aero dromes and hangars. The next big item is Canada—nearly £1,000,000. This represents repayments to Canada tor her contribution to our Air Forces in men, for pay, allowances, and clothing. And here one may be permitted to say that, although this House and the country owes to all the Dominions a debt it can never repay tor their help in securing the aerial supremacy ot this country, the largest debt in volume is due to the Dominion ot Canada. Of course, she bad the largest population, and one would not make invidious comparisons as to the services rendered by the various parts ol the diherent Dominions. Canada, it so happens, gave the largest contribution in numbers, and of her services those who know what Canadian airmen did will not require to be reminded. They were second to none. I commanded Canadian troops nearly all through the War, and 1 sent more than 100 of my own men to the Royal Air Force. Ot course, tbey corresponded with me, and I kept a Iriendly eye on their achievements, and naturally, therefore, it happened that 1 know perhaps better than most of the great services that Canada rendered to us during the War in the air as well as on land and sea. 'lhat brings up our total, il we add the miscel laneous charges of £1,000,000 tor petrol, oil, and other miscellaneous charges, which are non-recurring, to the non-recurting portion, to £39,000,000. There remain the recurring charges, which comes to about £27,000,000. These recurring charges are, personnel £18,000,000. Then we nave lor equipment £2,000,000. This does not represent any large number ol new aeroplanes outside those included in the £26,000,000. I fear this will be bad news for our great aviation companies, because it means that after the existing orders have been completed there will be but lew fresh orders lor several months to come. I hope at the earliest possible moment to be able to given an intimation to all concerned ot the probable number of aeroplanes, within very wide limits, which will be required in luture years. It will be difiicult to arrive at the exact figure we require, so that tbey may know what there is in store. But lor the moment it is not possible to give even that estimate, because we cannot tell what is the size ol the lorce which it will be necessary for us to maintain until we know what kind ol peace we are going to make. In addition to £2,000,000 tor equipment—and these, ot course, are all pro portionate to the £66,500,000 ; in the event ol our asking lor a decreased amount it will be correspondingly decreased, and in the improbable event of our asking tor an increase it will be conespoudingly increased—theie is a further sum of £2,000,000 lor land and buildings. 1 have dealt so lar with personnel and ihe technical equipment. This is in addition to the very large sum ot £5,000,000 which I re.ened to previously 101 lauds and buildings. This represents the minimum sum which will be required to complete the at ro-dromes, hangars, and other equipment which we shall requiic lor the Air Force of the imure, and lor the needs ol civil aviation. A good deal ol it is really very necessary, and I hope the House will sanction it in order to increase the coiniort 01 officers and men oi the Royal Air Force in all pans ci the world, and especially in the remoter aerodromes in this country. Any bon. member who has been to some of the aerodromes in this country which were necessarily put up in a great hurry during the War, will know how lar more uncom.onable both officers and men are than any men in the Army or Navy, except in the actual theatres 01 war. I think it was unavoidable when you were expanding the lorce irom 1,000,000 to a 2,000,000 basis. But now that peace is in sight, and hostilities have ceaied, we cannot ask officers and men any longer to remain under these conditions. Orders have been giveu at once, in anticipation of the sanction by the House ol these Estimates, or this portion ot them, that ati -men are to have beds to sleep in in this country, MARCH 20, 1919 and^wherever hostilities_are not prevailing, and that reasonable furniture for both officers and men shall be provided to give them some kind of modest but reasonable comfort such as is enjoyed by soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world. There is a large item of £2,500,000 for miscellaneous charges. This includes petrol, oil, lubricants, all kinds of miscellaneous services which, so far as I have been able to examine it, cannot be sensibly reduced. It allows, of course, for far less flying than was done in, time of war, but 1 think the sum, large as it is, cannot be reduced. These two items recurring and non-recurring together, come to a total of £63,000,000. There remains a sum of £3,000,000 which we have specially set aside for experimental research and civil aviation. I do not think the House will grudge this item when I explain the reason for which it is asked. The Committee will want to know why we want this large sum. It is a reduction by more than two-thirds of what it would have been had the War continued, and by nearly two-thirds of last year's expenditure. I think the Committee will say that is a considerable reduction. I believe the balance has been just in endeavouring to save the taxpayers' money and at the same time in ensuring that there is no undue hardship in the cancellation of con tracts on the one hand and no risk to the safety of the State on the other We provide for the number of men I have stated in the Vote. We estimate a larger figure up to July 31, thereafter sinking to what we estimate will be our peace figures, approximately 5,300 officers and 54,000 men. We have fixed provisionally the number of squadrons we require at 102. Of these we require a certain number at home. There is not much risk of this country being attacked at present from the air. However disturbed we may regard the state of Europe as being, especially in the Near East and on the borders of Russia and Prussia, we still can say for the moment that the risk of aerial attack is very small. But he would be a rash man who said there was no risk of this country being attacked in the future, and I am sure all hon. members who consider the subject will see that the power of aerial attack is so great and so swift and that the preparations for it can be made so secretly that we should be gravely to blame, anxiously as we look forward to a more peaceful world, certain as we are that we shall secure a just and a lasting peace, if we neglected the defence of what I may call our air as we protect our surrounding seas. We therefore retain the nucleus and the organisation of our Home Delence force, and, although we do not want a great many squadrons for the moment, we must have them available for Home Defence in the same way as we maintain our Navy and that portion of our Army which is required for a similar purpose. But of course in defending our islands, and by so doing defending the integrity of our Empire, against hostile attack if it should ever come from the air, we do not rely so much on great numbers as on remaining in the forefront of aerial development, on aerial research, on being able always to have the best aeroplanes of the newest type. It is on being first in the art of flying that we must rely for our aerial supremacy. In addition to Home Defence there is, of course, the large commitment of the proportion of the force for the Army of the Rhine and for the other Armies ot Occupation of the countries with which we have recently been at war. The Secretary of State lor War has considered very carefully, in con sultation with the Chiefs of the Staff both of the Air Ministry and the War Office and the corresponding officers at the Admiralty, and with mysell and General Sykes, as to what shall be the proportion of the Air Force to be maintained with the Armies of Occupation and with the Fleet, and we have arrived at what I think is a just figure. Speaking for myself, I believe the proportion of air force to land and sea forces will be an ever growing pro portion. I am not at all sure that within a few years air power may not make fleets and armies as we see them obsolete. Certainly that would be so if the progress in the air were anything like as rapid in the next ten years as it has been in the last ten. But we are dealing with the present, and we have fixed upon a certain ratio, and as I think a comparatively modest ratio, of power to land and sea power, and on that is based the approximate figure of 102 squadrons which my right hon. friend has fixed. Ot course, in addi tion to the Rhine forces there are the forces required in Egypt, in Meso potamia, a few in Archangel and elsewhere, but the greater porportion in Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Near East, and it is there where air power is at its greatest demand. It is there where air development will very likely have its greatest future as it has its greatest present. The Committee, I know, likes a definite fact. Here is a definite fact. Our political officer at Bagdad not only can but does do the same inspections, where necessary, in order to secure continuous friendly relations between the inhabitants ol those regions and ourselves, as it is desirable to maintain, in two days as he could do belore in two months. I think that one tact is an astonishing justification for this claim that especially in those regions where there are wide spaces with a per.ect climate and an almost complete absence ot the airmen's real enemy, mist and log—not wind—and where communica tions ot other kinds are so faulty, you can do things by air which you could not possibly do in any other way. It is there where air travelling might even at once be profitable tor all kinds of mails and samples and goods of a like nature. But I am not dealing now with the civil side. On the military side the tact that our political officer at Bagdad can do in two days what he could do in two months is only a symptom of the immense power that is exercised by a squadron or a flight ot aeroplanes in these regions. Gcnl. Salmon himself flew from Cairo to Karachi and on to Calcutta, and another aeroplane did the same trip. Genl. Salmon told me that flying over these regions, which are hardly ever visited by white men and the natives ol which had never seen an acq lane belore, as be saw the houses in the distance, they would be crcwded with people looking up to this strange new portent, the aeroplane in the sky, but that as the aeroplane approached in every case they disappeared and not one man over all these hundreds ol miles ol country ever dared to come out and look the aeroplane straight in the face. As time goes on, no doubt, the natives of these countries will cease to be so much alraid ot our aeroplanes, and their value in securing quick communication and in preventing, perhaps, misunderstanding which would result in a war by the immediate presence of the officer concerned, cannot be exaggerated. I hope, therefore, that the Committee, in sanctioning these Estimates, will bear in mind the great advantage they will be to us in the Near and Middle East. It may be convenient here, if I say in a phrase, it must be only a phrase, that the possibilities of carrying the mails from Cairo to India are extremely favourable, how best to do it, whether by carrying tbem by members ol the Royal Air Force or by putting it up to public tender, or by means of a chartered company, something on the lines of the original East India Co., is a matter for luture consideration, though not for long delay. What I would like to tell the Committee is that we have the aeroplanes there now which could, in tact, carry the mails. A careful estimate has been made by a responsible officer whp has been there, which shows that in his judg ment it would be profitable to carry the mails, and the Postmaster-General himseli, having gone into the matter, is enthusiastic in support oi it, and will co-operate in every possible way as soon as lhat service can be started. My right hon. friend the Secretary 01 State has always said that he believes that this is the first service that could be wisely and profitably undertaken by the air, and he proposes to concentrate the efforts of the Air Ministry on thi> first. There are, 01 course, other routes which I will refer to, but this one, having a peculiar strategical value, is the one where we can well make.our first start. We have got a force which we are reducing by three-quarters, the cost oi which we are reducing by two-thirds. The Estimate may seem to the Com* 37*
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