FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0162.PDF
it was not two years since the Air Ministry asked the Admiralty if they couM find 100 officers who were willing to come forward and volunteer for air work. When 100 were asked for by the Air Ministry, only nine volunteered, and, of those, two were unfit, while of the remaining seven, four were " axed " out in pursuance of the recommendations of the Geddes Committee, so that when you asked for 100 men to perform work which the House had approved there were only nine men, who melted away by being unfit or by being cleared out, but when it was a question of manning the air arm, whatever that might mean, in anticipation of a decision, there were 1,000 men and 140 officers who were to be placed in reserve for this purpose. The naval conception of flying was that it was a little thing you did in your spare time ; you were a good sailor, and if you had time you became a good airman as well. What were the services to be rendered ? They were air fighting, bombing, torpedoing, reconnaissances, and spotting. Spotting required the closest liaison between the man doing the spotting and the gunner firing at the back, but reconnaissance, bombing and fighting were pure air services. Moreover, if you did cut off the naval air service you would first of all cut off a great number of people serving 'in it from a general experience of air work, and thereby reduce the number of men who might be qualified to serve in an air staff college, and you would reduce the number of men available for a reserve of pilots, because a man's whole career was spent in flying in connection with the Fleet, or in returning to his duties with the Fleet, instead of a number of men being passed through, taught to fly, and form- ing in future a reserve of pilots. Turning to the speech of the Secretary of State on the Air Estimates, he would direct the attention of the Secretary of State, and that of hon. members, to the statement in the Geddes Committee Report to the effect that it was necessary to substitute the Air arm for the Navy and the Army in the performance of certain definite and specified duties ; that was to say, that the Air should gradually supersede the Army and Navy in fields of endeavour where it could be appropriately employed. It was obvious that if this was to be done it would never be done with the goodwill either of the Admiralty or the War Office. It was obvious that we must have a higher authority which could take all three Services and control and co-ordinate the work between them. There were other functions which should be set aside as work definitely to be undertaken by the Air Service, as, for instance, the patrolling of trade routes and the repelling of invasion by sea. Further than that, the Air Ministry's work was the repelling of invasion by air. That was entirely an Air Ministry task. Invasion by air must be met by finding and bombing the munition and other centres of the enemy, the aerodromes, and so on, not by waiting for the aeroplanes to come here. The Air was now recognised as being our first line of defence. That involved a consideration of the element itself, the mechanism employed, and the mentality of \those who used that mechanism. The airman should not depend for his career upon the Admiral or the General. He must be single-minded. His qualifications, ambitions, and goal should be one : his reward to serve his country in the air. He could not have his prospects of advancement jeopardised by being under the control of another Service. With regard to civil aviation he thought that the real problem for the Air Ministry was how to teach the people of this country to regard the element, that is the air, as as much their element as the sea now was. Major-General Sir F. Sykes (Hallam, U.) said that, speaking in the House for the first time on the subject of national and Imperial defence, he held that the question of a sound defensive air system was indissolubly linked-up with international affairs and social problems. He started from the basis that this country did not want war, and that we would do almost anything to ensure peace. Our men and women won the War, and in so doing hoped they were winning the end of war. The greatest gift for all classes in all countries would be the elimination of war. But, if war could not be eliminated, root and branch, they might hope that by some machinery such as the League of Nations there should be established a definite and general reduction of armaments. Our Navy and Army had given a good lead in the direction of definite reduction of armaments. Personally he thought that the lead of the Navy was not too small. He disagreed with the First Lord in saying that he felt that possibly next year it could not be reduced so much. He felt sure it must be reduced still further. We must remodel our systems ; the safety of the Empire now rested not on one of the three Services, but upon the co-operation of the three. He was not one who thought that MARCH 22, 1923 the time of the Navy and the Army would shortly cease, but he thought that the air had opened up a new phase or sphere of operations in war. The air would gradually come to have a preponderating role in defence. The air would help to avoid conflicts as much as or more than it would ensure victory. We no longer retained the lead in the air, and he was sure that the House would agree that at this juncture a misguided air policy would be almost a national disaster for the future. He urged the need of a " long-dated " policy and of the correlation of the various Services with a view to greater economy and efficiency. There should be unity of control for the three Services, and there should be a unified joint Staff College for the senior officers of the three Services. One danger was that if the Navy and the Army got their own tactical units there might be a desire in some quarters to dispense with the development of independent long-range air action, and there might be a tendency for that independent action to be reduced to very little or nothing. It was in regard to such independent action that he wanted to emphasise the fact that we should concentrate. There was a deep- rooted feeling on the part of the Air that the proposals of the other two Services were the thin end of the wedge to the assimilation of the bulk of the Service or activities, and their opinion was that that would be a very dangerous step to take from the point of view of progress and from the point of view of defence efficiency as a whole. The new Committee, which was to consider the air question, could only operate with real success if it were an independent and a very strong Committee. He hoped also that the Air Ministry would join in the scheme for making a naval base at Singapore. To establish an air depot there would greatly assist an air route to Australia. Mr. Amery, First Lord of the Admiralty (Sparkbrook, U.), replying to points raised by Capt. W. Benn, said that a sub- committee of the Committee of Imperial Defence had taken the view that airships had a value in more than one direction.' The Admiralty came to the conclusion that that form of reconnaissance might be of great value in minimising the work of its light cruisers. The question as to who was to pay and who was to control was obviously one which could only be decided by the Committee which was investigating the relations of the three Services. As to the question of the 1,000 men and 140 officers retained by the Navy, that particular personnel, whoever might control it, would have to be considerably enlarged during the coming year, in view of the fact that three new aircraft-carriers would be completed during the year. There would be considerable expansion of that service. In view of the fact that the late Cabinet had undertaken to appoint a Committee to settle this question and that a decision might be expected either before the end of the financial year or very soon afterwards, it would surely be the height of unwisdom and of cruelty to dismiss large numbers of men who might be wanted so soon. The compensation which would have had to be paid to them would have amounted to nearly £100,000. Mr. Batey (Spennymoor, Lab.) urged that the aim of the Air Ministry should be to build up not only a force capable of home defence, but also something which would have the same relation to the Air Force that the mercantile marine had to the Navy. There should be not competition but co-operation between the three Services in the matter of the Air Force. He moved as an amendment : " That pending the considera- tion as to the advisability or otherwise of the complete co- operation and co-relation of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, this House is of opinion that immediate steps should be taken _. to eliminate unnecessary expenditure consequent upon duplication of staffs or the elaboration of various and com- petitive plans dealing with the problems of air defence over land and sea." Mr. Rose (Aberdeen, N.; Lab.) seconded the amendment. Lord H. Cecil (Oxford University, U.) found it difficult to understand a policy of making preparation for defence sufficiently large to be costly and not sufficiently large to be efficient. He understood that, broadly speaking, the aero- plane was not considered a formidable defensive weapon. If the offensive was accordingly the only defensive, the question we really had to consider was whether our Air Force was strong enough to inflict serious crippling damage on a country with which we might be at war. As nobody dreamed of war with- France, and other nations near enough to be formidable in the": air were much exhausted, he thought the present duty of the Air Ministry was to study a severe economy and spend as little, r money as possible. He hoped the integrity and homogeneity -: of the Air Force would be maintained. As to co-operation : between the three great Services, he agreed that the real solution of the problem was in some general co-ordination of the whole defence of the country. He was inclined to fi 162
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
