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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0175.PDF
works and buildings, £61,000 ; meteorological services, £79,000 ; aerial routes (surveys, etc.), £15,000. Appended are details of the war charges included in the estimates :— Rewards to inventors and miscellaneous claims . .£500,000 Liquidation of war contracts, reinstatement of public roads, and completion of necessary war services. . 133,000 Compensation in respect of the occupation of land.. 155,000 Reinstatement of lands and buildings on relinquish ment, etc. .. .. . . .. .. .. 131,500 Liquidation of war contracts for experimental air craft, etc. .. .. .. .. .. .. 40,000 Total war liabilities .. .. .. £959,500 In an explanatory memorandum accompanying the Esti mates Capt. Guest outlines the steps taken to give effect, where possible, to the Geddes Committee's recommendations, and the reasons which have prevented the adoption of certain of that body's proposals. He states :— The net total of the estimates now presented is £9,935,500 for normal services and ^959,500 for war liabihties, making £10,895,000 in all. The comparable figures for 1921-22 (original estimates) were £15,809,000 for normal services and £1,471,000 for war liabilities, making £17,280,000 in all. There is thus a reduction of about £6,400,000, or 37 per cent. A reduction of some 20 per cent, was, in compliance with the directions given by the Government to all departments, effected in the sketch estimates prepared in July, 1921, and laid before the Geddes Committee ; the remaining savings have been effected subsequently on lines partly suggested by the Committee and partly arrived at independently. The process has been continuous, and some further reduction has even been made on the figure provisionally approved by the Government and embodied in the forecast of expenditure recently submitted to the House of Commons by the Chan cellor of the Exchequer. The estimates provide for an appropriation-in-aid amounting to £3,733.000 in respect of Middle East services. This sum is voted under Class V, 3, of the Civil Service Estimates, and is repaid by the Colonial Office to the Air Ministry. The figure includes provision for works and other ancillary services, and increased provision for armoured cars, the cost of which has hitherto fallen on Army Votes, the transfer of responsibility for these services being made in consequence of the recently approved schemes of Air Force control in Iraq and Palestine. Omitting these transferred services, the comparable figures for air units in the Middle East are £1,571,000 for 1921-22 and £1,750,000 for 1922-23, the latter being approximately the same as that laid before the Geddes Committee in the sketch estimates. The increase of the provision under certain subheads of the Votes for 1922-23 over that under the same subheads for 1921-22 is due to expenditure on the transferred services in the Middle East. These subheads are gross figures, the appropriations-in-aid, which include repayment for such expenditure, being shown in the final subhead of each Vote. The net figures for complete Votes are consequently a better basis for comparison between the two years. The active strength of the Air Force will be reduced by the equivalent of two squadrons. The Geddes Committee con templated that, failing some equal or greater reduction in the Navy or Army, a reduction of 8J squadrons could be made. The Government have not felt able to accept this recommendation, but they have fallen in with the views of the Committee to the extent of directing that over and above the actual reduction of two squadrons the equivalent of three <$> <•> Our Prince's Departure from India " THE Air Force provided the last guard of honour at Kiamari," is the note made by The Times special corre spondent, cabling from Karachi on March 17 an account of the departure from India of the Prince of Wales after his wonderful tour. The Marseilles-Monaco Seaplane Contest LAST week we published a list of the entrants for the seaplane contest at Marseilles, a Croisiere from Marseilles to Monaco. The following official entries by the Navy (competing hors de concours) are now to hand : Capt. Henri Lefranc (Hanriot, 130 Clerget) ; Second Mate Yves le Roux (G.L., 300 Renault) ; Lieut. Maurice-Rene Mas de Saint (G.L. 300 Renault) ; Second Mate Jean Riou (G. L. 300 Renault) ; Master-Pilot Alfred Fourchon (Hanriot, 130 Clerget) ; Second Mate Yves Lantz (F.B.A., 130 Clerget) ; First Mate Mathurin Le Hyarric (Hanriot, 130 Clerget) ; Mate more squadrons should be withdrawn from Navy and Army co-operation and allocated primarily to Home Defence. These squadrons will still be available for co-operation work on special occasions when required. They will also be used for training purposes, thus enabling economies to be made in the training establishments. The reduction of £5,500,000 on the sketch Air Estimates which the Geddes Committee believed to be possible (but which the Air Council were unable in large part to verify upon analysis) compares with a reduction of over £2,500,000 embodied in these estimates, a figure which would have been still higher had it not been for variations in appropriations- in-aid since the sketch estimates were framed. A considerable portion of this difference is attributable to the fact that, as explained above, in order not to denude the Navy and Army of Air co-operation, and in order to enable the nucleus of a force for Home Defence to be set up, all but two squadrons are to be retained. The remaining recommendations of the Committee have received the most careful consideration, and effect is being given to them to a very large extent. To take the most important items of reducible expenditure, works services have been cut to bare minimum, and stocks of machines, engines, and spares will be drawn on without replacement wherever possible. Here, however, a word of caution is necessary. The " reconditioning" of machines is not a process of improvement and embellishment, but one of making machines safe to fly. Economies in this direction must be governed by a sense of the most serious responsibility. Apart from this it should be realised that the patching up of temporary buildings and living on stocks is essentially a process of deferment of expenditure which must tend to force Air Votes up again in future years, and is justified only by extreme financial pressure. The general principles on which the training of the technical personnel of the Air Force is founded will be maintained, but in order to reduce the cost the existing scheme will be modified by lengthening the term of service of boy mechanics on completion of their training. A token sum of £20,000 has been included to provide for the inception of the scheme of an Auxiliary Air Force on a territorial basis. The same provision was made in the current year, but the Air Council have felt compelled, with much regret, to defer this expendi ture for another twelve months. A severe scrutiny has been applied to the staff of the Air Ministry, and the expenditure forecasted last July has been reduced by nearly £150,000. The total reduction on the sum provided for the current year is £235,000. The recommendations of the Geddes Committee in regard to civil aviation have been accepted in principle, but existing commitments have made it necessary to provide some £50,000 more than the committee believed would be required on that basis. The approved scheme for subsidies for cross-Channel flights, as published, which comes into full operation on April 1, remains unaffected. A reduction of some £320,000 has been made on the sum provided in the sketch estimate for experiment and research. This falls appreciably short of the committee's recommenda tions, but it was found that existing objections and commit ments would have accounted for the whole of the reduced figure which they suggested, and would have left nothing over for the development of new ideas during the coming year. This was a position which, in the case of a new science like aeronautics, it was hardly possible to accept, and pro vision has therefore been made, though on a very restricted scale, for some experimental orders to be placed in 1922-23. Desire Pierre (Hanriot, 130 Clerget) ; Second Mate, Pilot Henri Priol (F.B.A., 130 Clerget) ; Ensign Raymond Protoche (F.B.A., 200 Hispano) ; Lieut. Jean Raffin (F.B.A., 200 Hispano) ; Second Mate Rousselet Gerasi (F.B.A., 200 Hispano). _ Rotterdam-London Air Service THE Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij voor Neder- land en Kolonien of Amsterdam inform us that they intend reopening the line Amsterdam-Rotterdam-London on April 18 with one daily service in both directions for the present. Later this service will be twice daily. The time table (summer time) of the one daily sarvice will be as follows :— Departure, London, 10 a.m.; arrival, Rotterdam, 1.30 p.m.; departure, Rotterdam, 1.45 ; arrival, Amsterdam, 2.15. Departure, Amsterdam, -2.0 p.m. ; arrival, Rotterdam, 2.30; departure, Rotterdam, 2.45 ; arrival, London, 5.30 p.m.
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