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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1328.PDF
services of the country can never again be held up at the behest of a small group of extremists, with or without reason on their side. We are firmly con vinced that our best safeguard against this evil is in the strong development of aerial and road transport services which do not depend on the same circum stances as the more trammelled railways. We must develop these services strongly and rapidly until they have reached a stage when the business of the country can be carried on without interruption even though the railways should close down altogether and their tracks become rusty and grass-grown. In order to cope with the delay to the AeitoliJ?llB mails caused by *he strike> the R°yal Air Strike Force and the Post Office combined to run aerial services between London and the chief provincial cities, and by the end of the week quite a number of them were working efficiently. The Post Office has been criticised for lack of initiative in the matter, and it has been pointed out that although the Air Ministry had months ago worked out plans for carrying on such services in case of emergency, the postal authorities were not over-anxious to avail themselves of the organisation. We do not think the criticism is altogether justified. It should be remembered that the strike was one of the " light ning " variety, and that it only lasted a couple of days over a week. The public, therefore, had not time to realise that aerial services were running, and moreover the cost of carriage, viz., 2s. per ounce, was prohibitive except in the case of really urgent business corre spondence. Therefore, the mail bags were in most instances very much on the fight side. On one morning, for example, a machine left Hounslow for Bristol with i lb. n 02. of mail! On the other hand, the Brussels air mail went out with 1,400 lbs. and re turned with 2,000 lbs. Obviously, then, the question of popularity is for the moment one of public know ledge that aerial mail services are running. It is largely a matter of use and custom. Where it is known that services are in operation the public is not slow to take advantage of them, but in the matter of the strike services it was impossible to make the facts generally known in the time, and hence they were not very largely used. To blame the Post Office does not seem altogether logical. But after all excuses and explanations are made, it remains quite clear that when next, if ever, there is a stoppage of transport services the Post Office must be thoroughly prepared with plans for the carriage of mails by air. By that time, too, it should be possible to have ascertained with some certainty the cost of such services. Two shillings an ounce seems to be an inordinately high rate for letter postage, and we have no doubt at all that, given the necessary confidence and support by the business community, letters should be carried by air for no more at the utmost than a fourth of the strike figure. One heartening aspect of these services is that although, roughly, 50 machines were employed in the service there was only a single serious accident to be recorded, and every bag of mail matter was duty delivered. That is a good record, and will un doubtedly assist in creating that public confidence in the dependability of aerial transport which we have always insisted is the first requirement of success in aerial development. The success of the services is the best sort of propaganda possible. Doubtless many business people were compelled to trust their urgent correspondence to aerial post somewhat in fear and trembling as to its fate—the movement is even yet too young to command universal trust. All these have seen that the aeroplane can and does deliver its freight safely, and in far less time than is taken by other means of transport. It is arguable that what these people have been compelled to do by necessity on this occasion they will do of freewill on the next. In other words, they have been converted to the reliability of the aerial service, which has thus made many friends in consequence of its demonstration during the strike. It is an ill wind that blows no one good, and at least the ill-conceived strike of the rail- waymen has done aerial development no harm. <•» • • One of the things that strikes us most The in connection with the recent upheaval FrfC^m *s tbe complete want of logic displayed Press by certain sections of Labour. They applaud to the echo the poisonous enunciations of such journals as the Daily Herald. and the more personally abusive its articles are of those who are striving to carry on the business of the nation the louder their applause. But let the " Capitalist Press " and the " reptile Press "—which seems to include every newspaper and journal but the Herald and a few more inconspicuous sheets— say a word against the chosen leaders of the workers, and they are up in arms in a moment. That would not matter much, if that were all. Everyone is entitled to the expression of his own opinion, so long as he does not try to prevent the other side in a controversy from having equal freedom of expression. Apparently, though, that is exactly what a section of Labour partisans do not intend to allow to those who happen to be on the other side of the fence. The letter addressed to Lord Northcliffe by the machine hands employed on the Daily Mail is a case in point. These men took exception to the tone of the leading articles on the strike, and expressed the intention of striking if the opinions were not modified. Lord Northcliffe took the only possible course in the circumstances by informing these men, through their leader, that sooner than have the policy of his paper dictated by anyone outside the editorial direction, he would close down altogether. That seems to have brought the men to their senses, since no action was taken, and the Daily Mail continues to be published as of yore. Not only the Mail encountered this trouble. Apparently there was something like an organised movement to stifle adverse comment on the strike, since in a number of other cases similar attempts were made to dictate policy, but these met with the fate that might have been expected if the men had stopped to think. If there is one institution that must be more jealously guarded than another it is that of free speech and the untrammelled expression of opinion by responsible organs of public opinion. Once that freedom is lost, then good-bye to all the rest of the safeguards which make public life possible. If the men who last week tried to make trouble would stop to think, they would realise that the right of free speech is one which is subject to the greatest latitude •—and quite rightly so. Indeed, strongly as we hold the latter view, we are sometimes inclined to wonder if speech is not too free in this England of ours. Some of the utterances to be heard in the parks I330
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