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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0177.PDF
MARCH IO, 192 I numbers and costs of the garrisons of certain Oriental territories for whichwe are at present responsible. We know thati n the recent rebellion in Mesopotamia whole districts were prevented from rebellion by the merefact that aeroplanes were seen cruising over those areas. So far as coast defence is concerned—the defence of naval ports and defence against invasion—there is no doubt that the Air Force can afford a real protection that will take the place of far more costly vessels necessary in the pre-War days. Sofar as the Navy is concerned, it is quite true that no sensible or well-informed person contemplates the Air Force being able in the next five or ten yearsto take the place of capital ships that have formed the British line of battle on sea. Harm is done when claims are made on behalf of the Air Forceeither in regard to maintaining order and security, unaided, alone, single- handed, in large disturbed countries or in regard to the prime defence ofthese islands and of our Empire on the sea. The Air Force can only at the present time act as a supplement, as an increasing supplement, but stillonly as a supplement to the Army and the Navy, but it should be a supplement which, from now onwards, should enable the nnmber of types of warshipsto be reduced and considerable reductions to be effected in the number of troops we have hitherto employed in certain parts of the world. It maywell be, for instance, that the capital ship will be increasingly watched and protected by aircraft in the future instead of by the larger number of smallvessels, cruisers, destroyers, trawlers which have been found indispensable to its safety in the late War. H may well be that reconnaissance at sea byaircraft may be found a substitute for far more expensive types of sea-going ships. It may well be that the submarine will find in the aeioplane anotherof those deadly menaces which threaten to curtail its sinister intrusion into the foundations of our naval security. I do not wish to prejudge thosematters. I am sure that to scrap and break up the Air Force which has been created laboriously, which has just reached the effective stage, wouldnot only rob you of an essential and vital means of defence, but will also cut you off from the possibilities of future reductions in the other servicesthrough the substitution of air power for man power and for sea power, which reductions may indeed be an essential part of our tuture security. I suppose I shall be asked to refer to the future of the Air Ministry, ' I canassure the House I shall be absolutely ready to hand over the seals of the Air Ministry at any moment that it may be found convenient to create a newSecretary of State for Air with a separate seat in the Cabinet. That is a matter to which I would raise no sort of obstacle of any kind, but so longas I am responsible for the Air Ministry the policy which I now submit to the House will continue in essentials, if the House supports me, to be whatit has been during the last two years, that is to say, it will be first of all to spend £r,000,000 a year on civil aviation in whatever manner may be foundbest, but with particular regard to the importance of maintaining*the Cross- Channel services. Secondly, to build up in all its details a properly combinedefficient fighting service, a h-althy, skilled, and well-disciplined body of officers and men; and, thirdly, to maintain a unified, separate, independentAir Force as a third and equal arm in the Service with the Army and the Navy, and to act continuously in close and harmonious co-operation andcombination with them. Maj.-Gen. Seely : There were many of us who thought that the com-bination of the offices of Secretary of State for Air and Secretary of State for War was an indefensible arrangement, but to say that a maii could beSecretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for Air at one and the same time, seems to be indefensible, comic, but it may be in theend somewhat tragic. We shall be discussing these Estimates tomorrow, and perhaps it is proper now to ask who will be replying for the Air Ministrytomorrow, when, as we understand, the right hon. gentleman is going oft on his proper business to Egypt. Will he tell us who will be the representativeof the Secretary of State for Air in this House ? Mr. Churchill: My right hon. friend the Joint Parliamentary Secretary(Capt. Guest). Maj.-Grn. S?cly t Let us see what exactly has happened as the result Ofthe indefensible arrangement of the combination of the offices of Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air, and we can then consider whatwill be the result of the comic and tragic position. The plan which the right hon. gentleman laid before the House when he first became Secretaryof State for Air was that a certain sum should be expended in maintaining the military establishments, and he impressed this point, that the only wayto really maintain a powerful Air Force was that it should rest upon a commercial industry in this country. General Sykes, Controller Generalof Civil Aviation, who speaks for the right hon. gentleman, said this not many months ago : " The nation which is strongest in commercial air trafficwill be the strongest also in the cardinal warfare of the future." Thus we see clearly that the object of the right hon. gentleman was to maintain anadequate Air Force of a naval and military kind and, as General Sykes says, based upon a strong commercial aviation system in this country. All othercountries concerned in this matter have taken the same view. What has happened Would the House believe that when the right hon. gentlemanwas describing how well flying was- going on. that this commercial traffic which he himself says through his own subordinate is absolutely essential toour national safety has not only decreased in volume but has from today absolutely disappeared. There is nothing left of it whatever. A year anda half ago there were many great concerns building aeroplanes and above all with their designing staffs all busily trying to find out the best way toconquer the air for peaceful purposes. We were told by the Controller General of Civil Aviation that so many hundreds of thousands of miles wereflown—it was nearly a million—and providentially also hardly a life was lost Now no miles are flown : no aeroplane leaves these shore? ; and the righthon. gentleman sits there with smug satisfaction and asks the House to give him this grant of £18,000,000 when the whole basis on which the fabricwas to be created has absolutely vanished away. When I resigned from the office which I held because of the fact that toattempt to do two things at once would mean failure, 1 never thought my P-ophecies would be justiftedsosoon. I do not think any man, unfortunately,was ever so swiftly justified by events, for it is now the fact that the basis upon which the whole fabric of flying in this country was to be built up hasabsolutely disappeared. It all arises from the fact that a Government office must be controlled by a whole-time man. When I said that was neces-sary hsfore, you did not believe it, but now you see it is true. The Leader of the House had said that he did not agree with the theorythat it was necessary io have "one man, one job," and that it was possible to combine offices without their coming to grief. That could not be so. Inthe Air Ministry decisions could not be obtained because Mr. Churchill could not give the time required to the daily meetings, and that was the reasonwhy the whole basis of the right hon.'gentleman's policy had disappeared, and we were left in the extraordinary position that this nation, who hadmost to gain and most to fear from ae'rial progress, who two years ago were '» the forefront in every development, were now lagging behind all othernations. It was of vital importance to keep the industry going by fresh "rains. The necessity of a strong Air Ministry had been stated very oftenby Mr. Churchill, and by the Leader of the Houss and the Prime Minister and tfcre were not two opinions about it. He supposed it would be admitted'hat all the skill, knowledge and careful and industrious thought needed had practically disappeared. . _, , Yesterday for the last time an English aeroplane left these shores, lhat ought to have been foreseen and could easily have been avoided, V\nen we were spending £200,000,000 or more on the armed forces of the country,was it not madness to allow civil aviation, which was the foundation of the newest and most important of all those forces, to disappear He believedMr. Churchill had done wonderful work for the country, and hoped that he would do so in the future ; but if the right hou. gentleman did not devotehis mind to one thing he would lead the country to disaster. Col. Newman said : There is everything, apparently, included under CivilAviation except flying. A couple of yeais ago it seemid as though we had the ball at our feet tor those great far-distant aerial flights to India andAustralia, and that we had established on a firm lasis a service between London and Paris. That was two years ago. Today, the right hon.gentleman reminded this House that our last aerial service has clo ed down, unless it is revived again. What does that mean ? It means that we losethe serv.ces of an enormous number of skilled pilots who are accustomed to fly in all weathers. We lose a great number of machines. We lose thechance of making improvements in a great number of machines, and we see it taken from us by other nations. France, with a heavily subsidisedservice, is going to take over a service from Paris to London and London to Paris, and 1 daresay hon. Members will have noticed that France only yester-day inaugurated a service from her shores to Casa Blanca, one of the chief ports in the Mediterranean. I want closer co-operation between the Ministry of Air and our civilianair services, and our manufacturers of aeroplanes. I may be advocating a big change. 1 know it is a big change to have the present system tornup by the roots and turned into more of a territorial force, with a small established service capable of very quick and rapid extension, but for themain part my suggestion is that it should be based on what we call the territorial idea. That is a big change, and it is an ideal which it may be hardto reach. I am convinced, however, that if we were to put some scheme of that sort before the average patriotic ratepayer, and also allow the AirMinister to put his scheme forward at the same time, I am convinced that the taxpayer who wants to get the best value for his money would be inclinedto take the scheme I suggest. The taxpayer grants to the Air Ministry money and the civilian air services and the manufacturers can and will give to theAir Ministry pilots, machines, and mechanics of the very best if a working agreement can be arrived at, and 1 trust it will be. Sir Charles Sykes oncesaid that the nation which had supremacy in civilian time would have supremacy in military time. It is foolish to let down our civil flying andto look only to our military flying, and it would be much better to devote a certain part of this £19,000,000 to subsidise in the best way we can some ofthese aerial services which will be ol so much use in the future. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks : 1 wish to congratulate the right hon. gentlemanupon the speech he has made showing the work which has been done by the military side of the Air Ministry. Theie are one or two points not oidestructive but constructive criticism which I should like to make. Tht right hon. gentleman raised a question of airships. It seems extraordinarythat the whole of our airships are to be scrapped altogether and that the hangars, buildings and apparatus are to be handed over as a free gift to anycompany that likes to take them over. I wonder if the naval authorities have been consulted upon this matter. I know that when the airshipswere taken from the Navy and given to the Air Force a definite pledge was given that the future of all the naval officers would be thoroughly lookedafter by the Air Service. I want to know what is going to be done with those officers now. I want to know also what we are going to do in the event of another war.If, in the event of the possibility of another war what are we going to do tor airships ? We have had the Report of the Battle of Jutland and othernaval battles, from which it is clear that the Germans derived the greatest benefit by the observations made from Zeppelin airships on account of theenormous height, and the great radius of vision which those airships afforded. 1 want the Government to realise that the proposal for a separate Air Ministrywas definitely considered by the Government, and it was thought to le so essential thai the Government took the risk of altering the whole systemin the middle of a great war, and they constituted them a separate Air Ministry. At the recent Air Conference in London, where all the great air authoritieswere present, Air-Marshal Trenchard said : " One cannot look at a map of the world without seeing that Egypt is the centre of it from an aviation pointof view." That is admitted on all hands by anyone who has had anything to do with the Air Service. My right hon. friend is going out to Egypt, and, although we were told thathe will have nothing to do with the future of Egypt, he is still responsible for deajing with Egypt from an air point of view, "and I trust he will see forhimself the vital importance of Egypt as an air centre, and I hope he will come back with such information as will determine the arrangement and theposition of the Air Service, and that it will be employed and completely preserved. There has been a controversy in The Times on the question of" Big ships, or ? " and when I dived into that correspondence I found that the Cabinet Committee appointed to go into this question had not anybodyupon it qualified tu consider this question of the future of the big ship and the torpedo. Mr. Churchill : The Chief of the Air Staff and the Controller-General ofAviation gave the Committee full advice in regard to that matter in a long discussion. Sir W. Joynson-Hicks : I am pleased to have elicited that statementbecause it has never been made public. Many of us who believe in the enormous possibility of an air attack have no idea that this position had beenfaced by Air-Marshal Trenchard before that Committee. Sir Joynson-Hicks then having given details of the enormous develop-ments in the Air Service, continued : I want to say a few words on the civil side of aviation. My right hon. friend, in his speech, seemed rather doubtfulas to the future of civil aviation in this country, but if he really is doubtful, why should he keep this great organisation going ? Here we have an Estimatefor salaries of £178,000; £59,000 for stores and transport, £120,000 for technical equipment, £356,000 for building and lands, and £37,000 for petrol.• Bearing in mind all these items, I cannot think civil aviation is in such danger as one might imagine. With regard to the petrol item, I confess I cannotunderstand the enormous expenditure on that account. I do not think the Department does very much flying. Still, the Estimate does show thatmuch is being done on the civil side of aviation. If my right hon. friend is doubtful as to the future of civil aviation, why is he proposing to spend allthis money on building hangars, buying petrol, and establishing meteoro- logical stations, unless he intends to make civil aviation a possibility?Sir William then having detailed the European air routes under operation and planned, said : Situated, as we are, on an island, it is essential to usthat we should retain the freedom of the air over foreign countries. It is no use our saying to any foreign country " You may not run a service overEngland," because the natural reply would be, " Very well, you keep to your own island ; you shall not run an English service across vat country."It is vital to our future in the air that we should retain by agreement with foreign countries the right of running air services across them. It is humiliating to find that there is more than a possibility—a verygreat probability—of a German air service running across England in this way, while we here in England have no commercial air service at all.Mr. Handley Page and Mr. Holt Thomas have, as we know, done their best to keep going. I am told that a few months ago a r ew commercial machine 177
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