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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1384.PDF
by way of Damascus, Baghdad, Basra and the coasts of Persia and Baluchistan. Over this section the landing grounds are said to be quite good, and landing in the desert is usually practicable in emer gency, but the possible hostility of the natives, together with the shortage of water and the absence of methods of communication, add considerably to the risks of a forced landing. From Karachi the next stage is across India to Calcutta, by way of Nasirabad, Delhi and Allahabad. This is a com paratively easy stage, especially as the Indian Govern ment has promised every possible assistance from the R.A.F. in India. Beyond Calcutta the com petitors will be thrown upon their own resources so far as concerns the necessary supplies of fuel and spares, etc., in view of the fact that no British aerodromes exist. On the aeroplane route from Calcutta there is a landing ground at Akyab, 280 miles away, and there is no other available until the Rangoon racecourse is reached—a further 500 miles. There is another long stretch of more than 1,300 miles before Singapore is reached, where the only possible landing ground is the racecourse. After leaving Singapore the next possible stopping place is the Dutch Government aerodrome at Bandoeng. Thence to Port Darwin is 1,750 miles, of which 500 miles are over the sea. There are no aerodromes or possible landing-places for aeroplanes on this final stretch of the course. By converting the machines to seaplanes, as the Air Ministry has sug gested, the number of available stopping-places on the final stages of the journey are multiplied very materially. There are practicable harbours all along the route, and by the adoption of the advice of the Ministry the competitors will ensure a stopping-place at least every 500 miles. The longest stretch would be from Koepang Bay to Port Darwin, a distance of 518 miles. Obviously, it would make for a far greater margin of safety, and would, therefore, con- tr.bute much to the possibilities of success to carry out the conversion recommended, and, although we are not in the secret of the competitors' intentions, it will probably turn out that the advice will be taken. However that may be, and whether the several competitors elect to chance things and accept the risks of the long non-stop flights by aeroplane, or to take what seems to be the more prudent course, the test is certainly, one which will search out every weak point both of men and machines. If they fail, the failure will be a glorious one. If they succeed they will have erected a landmark in the history of aviation dwarfing everything that has been done before. We need hardly say that we wish every luck and success to Captain Matthews and his companion, and also to those who are preparing to follow them on their long trail. The first task of Parliament, after Cutting purely routine business has been dis- the Services P°sed of, will be to enquire how far the Prime Minister's precept to reduce expenditure to " £2,000,000 a day and not more " has been complied with. It does not seem, on the face of things, that economies have been effected on a sufficient scale to have brought the national expenditure down to the required level, nor does there appear to be too hopeful a prospect of effecting the needed reductions for some time to come. The new Departments created during the War are, as 138 OCTOBER 23, 1919 everyone foresaw who was at all familiar with the ways and methods of officialdom, taking a great deal of rooting out—the limpets are clinging tightly to their rocks and intend to hang on until they are literally dragged from their anchorages. There has been a great show of cutting down the staffs in these war Ministries, but so far as it is possible to judge this has been to a large extent " eye-wash." The minor officials, whose salaries rule low, and numbers of the women helpers have been dismissed, but the big men who draw the big money find them selves too comfortable and are hanging on to their jobs for all they are worth. It really looks as though we had been right a year or two ago when we said that, when the War was over, it would be harder to get rid of the new bureaucracy than it was to beat the enemy in the field. In the meantime, there does seem to have been a serious effort made to cut down the expense of the fighting Services. The total cost of the three Services is being got down rapidly to "the required level of £160,000,000 per annum, which is rather more than double the cost of the Navy and Army before the War. Manifestly, if this figure really is reached, there will be no further room for economy in that direction. There is now a third Service—the R.A.F. —to be estimated for, and when we come to regard the vastly-increased pay of officers and men in all three, and the much greater costs of material of all kinds, the thought must arise whether we are not going to an extreme and cutting our means of defence too fine. Of course, we have no longer to provide against the German menace, and, so far as it is humanly possible to foresee, the horizon seems clear and another great war no more than a remote possi bility. It should not be forgotten, however, that great wars break out suddenly and without any period of warning which will enable the country which is unprepared to make good the deficiencies of neglect. What our own state of unpreparedness cost us in the late War it would be futile to discuss —it cannot be estimated, but we know it was a stupendous total of life and treasure. Indeed, there are some authorities who say with certitude that if we bad been able to throw a million men into the field in the first month of European war, properly trained and equipped, Germany would never have taken the risk she did, and the world would have been spared the horrors of the greatest war in history. However, these speculations are perhaps idle now, but they are interesting, never theless. • • • Naturally, in this drastic cut at the The Future expense of the fighting Services, we R.A.F. are more keenly interested in what is happening to the R.A.F. than to the others. It certainly does not seem that an annual expenditure of £25,000,000 on aerial defence is exactly a lavish provision. Still, we are not inclined to quarrel with it on the score of inadequacy, if only because we realise that the nation cannot at present afford to waste a shilling on unnecessaries, and what we simply cannot pay for we must do without. The principal thing to be seen to now is the getting of value for every penny spent on the R.A.F. After all, even when the present cost of material is taken into account, £25,000,000 is a substantial sum of money, and a great deal can be done with it if it is
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