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Aviation History
1924
1924 - 0066.PDF
discussion before your Sub-Committee, the Air Department have shown a disposition to meet Admiralty views. The first of these relates to the framing of the Naval Estimates. The Admiralty desire that in these Estimates should be included the cost of the Fleet Air Arm "Fourth Recommendation.—The Air Department are of opinion that technically this course would be inconvenient, but have no objection to it in principle. Your Sub-Committee are of opinion that this question should be settled by the Treasury in consultation with the two Fighting Services. " The Admiralty require that the Air Force on board ship should be completely under the orders of its Captain. Your Sub-Committee are of opinion that, inasmuch as all the air men on board ship are under the Naval Discipline Act, this, in theory, is already provided for, but undoubtedly in the minds of those chiefly concerned some obscurity hangs over the subject This, we think, should be explicitly cleared up. "Fifth Recommendation.—The position of a member of the Air Force when on board ship does not differ in law, and should not differ in practice, from the position of, say, a Marine. " Sixth Recommendation.—In order fully to carry out the policy laid down in the preceding paragraph, we recommend, and have reason to believe that the Air Ministry will accept the principle, that all reports on officers of the Fleet Air Arm, whether confidential or otherwise, should be signed by the Captain of the ship and passed through the Naval Commander-in-Chief to the Air Officer- Commanding the Coastal Area. '' Seventh Recommendation.—A further point which should be dealt with under this heading is one on which the Admiralty have expressed considerable anxiety and on which we have reason to believe that the Air Force are prepared to meet their wishes. The Admiralty are apprehensive lest, in time of war or other emergency, the Air Ministry might withdraw from the Navy units of the Fleet Air Arm and use them for other purposes. In respect of this we recommend that it should be definitely laid down that the personnel, materiel and reserves of the Fleet Air Arm should not be withdrawn by the Air Ministry without either the consent of the Admiralty or a decision of the Cabinet. " Before concluding this class of questions, we must take note of a complaint made by the Admiralty that on board the carrier there is a good deal of duplication of effort between the purely Naval Service and the Air Force. " Eighth Recommendation.—We think this subject should be looked into by the two Departments concerned and we do not doubt that arrangements can be made by which all overlapping can be effectively avoided. " We now come to the last class of questions with which we have to deal, which are at once the most difficult and the most important. We are strongly of opinion, and we have every hope that the two Services share our view, that, since in war the Services may have to co-operate, it is vital that in time of peace they should form an accurate estimate of each other's needs and capacities. " Ninth Recommendation.—We therefore recommend— " (i) That Naval officers should be appointed to the Air Staff, (ii) That Air Force officers should be appointed to the Naval War Staff, (iii) That some means should be devised by which the wealth of technical knowledge at the disposal of the Admiralty should be utilised in the technical depart ments of the Air Ministry, preferably by reinforcement of the staff of these departments by naval technicians. " These recommendations refer exclusively to the head quarters of the two Services ; but it is perhaps even more important that the junior ranks of the two Services, who will in time occupy responsible positions, should have a con siderable sprinkling of persons familiar with the needs and capacities of the other Service. " The Air Force look to a system of naval seconding for carrying out half this policy, and we cannot believe that the Admiralty would be averse to having members of the Air Force on board the carriers. Unfortunately, seconding from the Navy to the Air Force, as at present understood, must be deeme d to have been hitherto a failure, and we find it difficult H H A New Air Port for Paris PARIS, it appears, is just as badly situated in regard to her Air Port as is London. Anyway, the growth of air traffic to and from Paris has now increased to such an extent that a scheme is being considered for the establishment of a new Air Port. The new scheme, which comes from JANUARY 31, 1924 to believe that, if the present system remains unchanged and unexplained, any great improvement is likely to occur. We cannot be surprised that a young officer who has just joined the Navy is reluctant to abandon, even temporarily, the department under which he is expected to serve and to exchange it for one which is essentially different. The feeling is natural and cannot be ignored. " It must, however, be pointed out that if the word seconding ' is thus used this is not what any naval officer under the present scheme is expected to do. In ordinary practice, when we say that an officer is ' seconded ' to another Service, we, no doubt, intend to express the idea that for the duties which he had to perform and for the authorities he had to obey in the Service which he has temporarily left will be substituted new duties and new authorities. But this does not really represent the facts in the case of so-called ' seconding ' from the Navy into the Air Force. The duties of the seconded officer, though carried out in the air, remain, nevertheless, naval duties, and the Captain whom he has to obey continues to be a Naval Captain. " Tenth Recommendation.—In order to make this situation perfectly clear, we recommend that no seconded naval officer shall be asked to perform non-naval air duties, except with the consent of the Admiralty. We believe the Air Force are prepared to accept this principle. " If this recommendation be carried into effect, the most important change involved in the operation of what is (some what inaccurately) called ' seconding ' is the change from the naval to a flying uniform—a change which can hardly be said to touch the essence of the situation. " Eleventh Recommendation.—We suggest, however, in order to meet the sentimental, though not on that account unim portant, objection, that the uniform of a naval flying man who, except for his period of training, is to all intents and purposes still under the Admiralty, should be distinguished from the flying men under the Air Force by some differentia ting badge or mark. This would be the outward and visible sign that he still remains a member of the Service which he originally joined. It would be a clear indication that what he proposes to do is to add accomplishments in naval flying to the other accomplishments which his brother officers are cultivating. If such a plan were found practicable, the objec tion felt by the Admiralty to the introduction of what they deem an ahen element into the domestic life of the ship should be largely mitigated. " It might well be that, if this scheme succeeded, the number of officers seconded from the Navy to the Air Force would exceed the 30 per cent, of the total contemplated by the Air Service. " Twelfth Recommendation.—We see no reason why 30 per cent, should be regarded as the maximum, and we should propose to leave it to the Admiralty to determine what the proportion should be, subject to the proviso that not less than 30 per cent, of Air Force Officers, whether regular or short service, should serve on board the carriers. " There is another point of great practical importance on which something must be said. It is agreed that the work of spotting for naval gunnery is one which should be under taken in all cases by naval officers, but such investigations as we have been able to make convince us that naval spotting and fleet reconnaissance cannot be sharplv divided, and that the officer entrusted with the one may inevitably find himself called upon to perform the other also. We have been unable to discover any objection to this change, which, on the face of it, seems obviously reasonable. " Thirteenth Recommendation.—We therefore recommend that fleet reconnaissance, as well as naval spotting, should be entrusted to naval officers, seconded or otherwise." The concluding words of the report are :— " If anybody will take the trouble to read the evidence given before us they will, we believe, be impressed by the number of problems for which a solution has been found by the two Departments or suggested in this Report. We earnestly trust that no merely technical difficulties will be allowed to stand in the way of a settlement,^which^in^the public interest is most urgently required." J 1 J j M. Henri Sellier, suggests that" Mont Valerieu should take the place of Le Bourget. Mont Valerieu is not only much closer to the centre of Paris (being only some five miles' drive through the Bois de Boulogne), but lies in much more pleasant surroundings than Le Bourget. The latter aerodrome will probably be retained as a depot and repairing. centre
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