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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0660.PDF
TM& certificate is all that is necessary. The Regulations seem to be quite clear on the point that a certificate of competency issued by" the Secretary of State is essential. Of course, there is nothing in the Air Force Act which prohibits the Secretary of State from delegating his authority to issue such certificates or licenses to any competent body he may select, but the point is he has not done so. For our own part, we are of opinion that there can be no objection at all to such delegation of authority to the Royal Aero Club, provided the club is willing to accept the responsibility. Its certificates for general flying were all that were necessary before the War, and there seems to be no valid reason why they should not be equally good now. Considering what the club has done for aviation in the past, it would be a graceful, as well as a fair act if the Secretary of State were to ascertain the club's views as to this question of the issue of licenses for flying other than public service. * * • According to a special correspondent „ Another wno ^ites in The Times Trade Supple-P n ment there is to be fou-:d a practical counterpart of the Cippenham motor dep6t at Halton Camp, near Aylesbury, where, he states, the Govern ment is covering a large area with permanent build ings, and employing great numbers of men who fill the trains from Aylesbury, some of them travelling from London, the time occupied in travelling being paid for. The intention appears to be to build a school for the technical training of mechanics for the Air Service, but, suggests the correspondent, there is plenty of room at Woolwich where great numbers of men have been paid off. Mr. Churchill paid a visit to Halton recently, and is said to have exclaimed " Colossal ! " Whether he referred to the scale of the enterprise or to the row there is likely to be in Parliament and the country if the scheme is what it appears to be is not explained. For all we know, The Times correspondent may have discovered a mare's nest, but we suggest that, the statement having been made that Halton may be another Cippenham, an early opportunity should be taken of ask'ng for a clear and definite statement as to what is actually going on and what are the intentions of the Air Ministry with regard to the camp. The precise purpose for which the works are designed and the amount of money to be spent on them must be disclosed without any more delay than can be helped, so that if there really is an Air Ministry Cippenham toward it may be stopped before it has gone too far. We certainly cannot conceive that a training school for air mechanics on any scale de serving the description of " colossal" is either necessary or desirable, particularly as no concrete scheme has been arrived at in regard to the post-War establishment of the R.A.F. Possibly this is another of the schemes decided upon as a War measure and dozed over until the sudden cessation of hos tilities awakened officialdom to the fact that it had decided to do something to help win the War ! • • • How on earth anyone can be found More to advocate the nationalisation of Examples gj.eat industrial and commerc'al under- Official takings in the light of the disclosures Inefficiency that are being made almost daily of official inefficiency, amounting almost to criminal negligence, passes the understanding of MAY 22, 1919 the ordinary plain person who has no axe to grind. Day by day people are found to argue that there is only one way for the country to recover itself and that is to turn it into a huge State trading concern— a sort of apotheosis of State Socialism. They will argue by the hour that the most efficient and the most willing workers are those employed by the State, and that if you really want to put a great enterprise permanently and soundly on its feet there is only one thing to be done—nationalise it and make even- employee an official. If only these people had the time to spare from their vapourings to read, and the sense to appreciate, such a document as the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General on the accounts of the Ministry of Munitions they would probably be driven to admit that there might be two sides to official management of business concerns. The Auditor-General cites one case of a contract for rolling plates which was placed on the basis of payment by the Ministry of : (1) cost of pro duction ; (2) £4 for every ton of finished product ; and (3) bonus on reduced cost. The first item as defined in the contract terms, included an allowance for material lost in process, but as the material was provided by the Ministry free of charge it seems fairly clear that the contractor was " on velvet " until the Auditor-General stepped in and queried the matter. We could go on selecting examples of the most appalling slackness in dealing with the nation's money, but there is really no necessity since they have become commonplaces of official management. The almost inevitable conclusion that would be reached by any business man after a study of the Report would be that the official system of carrying on commercial affairs would ruin the wealthiest corporation in less than a year, and that the official mind is really incapable of running a duck farm as a business proposition. It is not so much the men as the system that is at fault. During the War we have seen the great Departments of State call in to their aid prominent business men—men who have made their mark in the commercial affairs of the nation. Yet in a very large number of such cases the system has proved too much for the man and he has retired in disgust from a task which he found impossible of accomplishment. In others the prin cipal figure has not been strong enough to retire, or ha^ conceived it to be his duty to stay on and fight an almost hopeless battle, with the almost certain result that he has failed and has lost reputation. Yet this is the soul-destroying system of bureaucracy which the nationalisers would fasten to the com munity, with its substitution of collective mediocrity for individual brilliance of intellect and executive capacity. It would be an excellent idea to placard the country with some of the more glaring examples of official ineptitude disclosed by the Auditor-General and allow the public to make its own conclusionr as to the business capacity of the Government official and the adaptability of the bureaucratic system to commercial affairs. We dare prophesy that if this were done there would be very little more advocaev of nationalisation, save by the incorrigible Bolshevist Socialist minority. • • • As we go to press there is still no news ^Slant* of Hawker &tid ms gallant companion, Failure Commander Mackenzie-Grieve, who set out from Newfoundland on Sunday evening to essay the crossing of the Atlantic. There 660
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