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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0466.PDF
the right kind of news up to a point. Very sensibly, knowing that constant questions on matters of interest must arise, the answers to which are a sealed book to the general Press, the Air Council has decided upon the system which is now being worked. The section has now been working long enough to have disclosed itself as one of the most valuable of all sections of the Air Ministry. We trust Col. Ashley was satisfied with Capt. Guest's reply. If he was not, we suggest to the Ministry that he should be put on the list of those privileged to receive the official communiques issued by the official in question. He would then be better able to appreciate the excellent work that is being done. Air At the conference of Dominion Prime Ministers with the Home authorities ^^ recently, at which the subject discussed Imperial was that °f Imperial communications, Conference Mr. Hughes in particular enunciated some very patent home truths. He pointed out that the first necessity for solidarity of the Empire is improved communications, and then entered upon a trenchant criticism of existing methods of transport and inter-communication. We have not, he said, in recent years increased the efficiency of our communications with Australia. In fact, it takes as long now to reach the Dominion as it did 25 years ago. That, he said, will not do. We depend upon each other. Does not common prudence, as well as wisdom, dictate the policy that we should get as close to one another as possible Turning to aviation as a possible help to this closer union, he pointed out that when the Conferences were at an end it would take Mr. Massey and himself no less than six weeks to get home again, while by air travel, supposing the facilities to exist, the time could be reduced to ten days. In this connection he particularly mentioned airships, and Sir. F. Sykes agreed that the estimate of ten days for the journey to Australia was nearly enough correct. *• Later on, Mr. Churchill gave some very interesting information regarding what is being done in Palestine and Mesopotamia in the way of surveying aerial routes, but nowhere does it emerge that any member of the Conference had any concrete scheme to bring forward, showing how all the desirable quickening up of communications can actually be achieved. Every speaker who touched upon the question of better communications agreed as to their desirability, and were unanimous that the matter was simply one of finance. As to aviation, they were agreed in the light . of the expert opinions before them that at the present moment and until the necessary services are estab- lished and had had a chance to get well going, they cannot work on an economic basis. In other words, if this country and the Dominions want these faster communications by air, it resolves itself into a question of some sort of subvention in order to carry the services over the bad time after the initial start. That is the beginning and end of the matter, as we see it. Now, the Imperial Conference has before it a well thought out scheme, prepared by the Agent-General for Tasmania, for utilising the airships for the task which is so exercising the minds of the Dominion Premiers. The scheme requires money for its working, and the Dominion Governments are asked, under its- terms, to find a certain amount of the sums required. Not a word was spoken at the Conference with refer- ence "to the scheme or its finance. Possibly the time was not then for its discussion, though we should have JTH.Y liked to have seen some reference to it. Apart from this particular scheme, we cannot help thinking that on the larger general issues more ground would have been turned if the discussion had taken a less discursive tone. There was a great deal said about the urgent . need of better Empire communications. We are all agreed that these are desirable—absolutely essential —and with all respect we would say that it did not need a meeting of all the Premiers of the Empire to enforce the point. What matters most is: how are those better communications to be achieved ? It seems to be the general view that we want more and better steamship services, more extended cable and wireless facilities, and the institution of Empire air services. It is further agreed that it will not, for the present at any rate, pay commercial enterprise to extend in either direction. Therefore, all these things being necessary from the Imperial point of view, it seems to follow that if they cannot in the meanwhile be carried on economically it is a matter for the Empire as a whole to take up with a view to seeing how badly we really want these services and what they are worth Imperially until they can be made to pay their way. In a word, if the Empire wants more and better means of communication, then the Empire must be prepared to pay for them. It is from that point of view that it appears necessary to approach the subject. • • • Under this heading The Times, which *lepr'?ve ^as rendered splendid service to aviation Airships? during the period since the War, has urged the futility and waste of scrapping the airships and their material, in a series of articles and letters. No new arguments have been adduced, but the effect has been to concentrate considerable attention upon the fate of these craft, and to create a strong feeling among the public that the policy of the Government is entirely wrong. Whether the campaign will succeed in reversing that policy remains to be seen. The appointed time is drawing very near now, and nothing fresh has transpired to indicate that any new decisions have been taken or even considered, but we still cannot bring ourselves to believe that forty millions of money and all the accumulated experience of the past seven years are to be wasted—thrown on the manure heap. The Cabinet, or its advisers who have recommended scrapping the ships, do not seem to believe in them at all, and hence are willing to hand them over to be broken up and the materials sold as mere waste. We could understand this up to a point if others held the same apparent opinions, but we seem to be alone among the nations in our disbelief in the possibilities of the rigid airship. As we pointed out on a previous occasion when dealing with this subject, France, the United States, Italy, and Germany are all going ahead with the development of the lighter- than-air type. America and Germany in particular are devoting particular attention to the subject. We, who know more about it than anybody, save possibly Germany, and who alone are in possession of efficient airships, seem determined to let slip the oppor- tunity which lies to our hands to be the first to develop the airship commercially. Whether the ships are to be really reprieved or not in the end, we trust the Cabinet will at least respite them for long enough to allow the scheme of the Agent-General for Tasmania, referred to in a previous article, to be thoroughly debated and given a chance of becoming something more than a paper plan. 466
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