FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1924
1924 - 0166.PDF
showed that the programme initiated by the last Government was not only effective but economical. Another pledge which he gave the House was in regard to the development of civil aviation simultaneously with the expansion of military aviation. He was successful after long and complicated negotiations in bringing together the four small civil air transport companies and in helping them to amalgamate in a big and broad enterprise. It was interesting to him to note that the Under-Secretary for Air had no criticism to make of those arrangements. A third undertaking he gave was that so far as he could he would develop once more the policy of airship operations by means of commercial enterprise. A Committee was ap pointed consisting of himself, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, -which con sidered various schemes and eventually accepted the principle of the scheme associated with the name of Commander Burney, member for Uxbridge. The main conditions of the scheme and the financial arrangements in regard to it were described by him to the Economic Conference in the autumn, and a report of his speech was then published in the Press. If that scheme proved successful it would be possible to reach Cairo, not in from five to eight days, but in two days ; Bombay not in 14£ days, but in 4J days ; Singapore not in 28 days, but in eight days ; and Perth—supposing the service continued to Australia—not in 28 days, but in 11 days. He regretted most sincerely the omission from the Estimates of any provision for airships. Before he left office he had included in the Estimates a sum of ^400,000 for bringing into operation at once the first stages of this great enterprise. Today the Under- Secretary told them they were to have another enquiry into a question upon which there had been enquiry after enquiry. It was the more regrettable because he was certain that when this further investigation was finished it would be found that there was no quicker or cheaper way of getting six gigantic airships into the air between here and India than upon the lines of the agreement virtually arrived at before he left office. If the Government decided to operate these airships themselves they would find the experiment not only very dangerous, but very expensive. Adequate Air Defence Turning to what he described as the central question of air defence, he said that hon. members on that side could not disguise from the Under-Secretary that they had a good deal of anxiety and uncertainty still as to the amount of enthusiasm that was going to be put behind the carrying out of the expansion programme. Mr. Leach and Lord Thomson hedged round their acceptance of the programme with so many excuses that many members wondered whether the scheme was going to be pushed through in the way they desired. It seemed to him the Secretary for Air and the Under-Secretary were unnecessarily making excuses for carrying out the elementary duty of a Government—the duty of national defence. He could not help thinking that today the Under- Secretary protested too much as to his pacifist opinions. They on that side were just as anxious as Mr. Leach to see a reduction of armaments, but that reduction was not going to be brought any nearer by statement after statement that seemed to imply that the Government had no faith in the adequacy of national defence. The most serious part of Mr. Leach's former speech was not his pacifist obiter dicta, but his confession that air defence could not be adequate. It was entirely misleading to say that adequate air defence was, not attainable. If his (Sir S. Hoare's) programme was carried out in detail, and if simultaneously the anti-aircraft defences of the War Office were fully developed, adequate air defence was certainly attainable. If the Government pushed on the schemes already in existence for combined defence, enemy raids, even if sporadically they penetrated, would become fewer and fewer, their formations would he broken up, and they would be driven to a height from which the aim of their bombs could not be accurate. [Lieut.-Commander Kenworthy : Are we to understand the right hon. gentleman left office without any scheme of co ordination between the military and air defences ?] The hon. and gallant member must understand nothing of the kind. There was a fully-worked-out scheme, and he hoped the Under-Secretary would see it was carried into effect. Referring to the resolution which stood on the paper in the name of Mr. Penny that the Air Force here should be adequate to defend these shores from the strongest air force within striking distance, he said he would have thought it a resolution that any Government would have welcomed. It was something more than an abstract pedantic resolution ; it was a very useful, workable formula. The Government had said that they were prepared to accept the first part of the MARCH 20, 1924 scheme of expansion, but not to go farther. They could not isolate one stage from another. If the Under-Secretary a»d his Government were going to restrict themselves to tke first stage and did not look ahead, they would find that it would be much more difficult to carry out the subsequent stages. It was most important that the Government should accept Mr. Penny's resolution, and should show by then- acceptance that they were prepared to carry out the extension programme of the late Government, and that it would carry out the first stage in such a way as to make the carrying o»t of the later stages economical and expeditious. Major-General Seely said that Sir Samuel Hoare was hard to please if he was not satisfied with the attitude of the Under- Secretary for Air. The Under-Secretary had admitted that this was a policy of expansion, both of men and materials. The Under-Secretary had assumed the rdle of the strong, stern Minister and had rebuked him (Major-General Seely) as the pacifist. But the hon. gentleman had forgotten that he resigned his post as Air Minister because he believed that Mr. Churchill was sacrificing the Air Force to the Army, aad because the air expansion was not rapid enough. The Esti mates did represent a considerable increase. It was true that a great part of it was due to Sir. S. Hoare, but some parts of it were due to the present Secretary of State and the Under- Secretary. It was quite wrong to suggest that the increases were due to the increased air force of France. When it was proposed recently to have a neutral pact France openly stated that if we increased our land forces and our naval forces they -were prepared to reduce theirs, and he had heard, and had seen it stated, that, as all that France wanted was security, if -we would make ourselves stronger in other directions—in the air —the French would feel themselves justified in reducing their air forces. A delegation from the Department was shortly to inspect the air forces of France, and he prophesied that these officers would report that it was apparent for various technical reasons that the increase of French air power could not be directed against this country. He asked the House seriously to say that in the expansion of our air forces we had no idea of replying to a menace from France. He urged the importance of co-ordination in defence, and asked how far the arrangement by which there was an increase in the Air Force and a reduction in other Forces had been scientifically con sidered. He also laid stress on the importance of interesting the Dominions in air defence, and said he believed that if the Prime Minister were to invite the Dominions and India to join in forming an Imperial Board of Aerial Research, there would be a surprising response. We wanted the newest and most original brains, and men from our Dominions had shown themselves foremost in the matter of research and novel ideas. Unionist Amendment Mr. Penny moved : " That in the national interests it is essential that the Air Force should be administered in such a way as to ensure adequate protection against air attacks by the strongest air force within striking distance of our shores, and to foster and assist civil aviation, and to secure economy and increased efficiency in regard to construction, equipment, personnel, research, and routine." He contrasted the speech which the Under-Secretary had just delivered with the hon. member's previous utterance. Lieut.-Colonel Windsor-Clive, in seconding the amendment, asked whether the Government accepted the standard of air strength recommended by the Committee of Imperial Defence. He agreed that every hon. member wished to secure the limitation of armaments, but they would only get that limi tation when they had an adequate Air Force. This country must have something to bargain with. Lieut.-Colonel Williams urged that the Air Forces should be withdrawn from Mesopotamia and Palestine, where they were being used to maintain mistaken policies, and added to the home Force, which was undoubtedly below strength. Captain W. Benn said that no one complained that the Air programme of the Government, being, in fact, the programme of their predecessors in office, was insufficient for the needs of the country at the moment. What the House was, in fact, asked to do by the amendment was to enter into competition with other nations in air armaments. It would be very unwise for the House to vote for such a declaration. More over, no material advantage would be gained by the adoption of the policy recommended. Every increase in our Air Force had been followed by an increase in the French Air Force. It was said in France that in aviation they were foremost of the world, and that they would do their utmost to stay there. Sir F. Sykes said the amount of money available for defence should be divided between the three arms so as to obtain the best combined result from them. The most glaring weakness
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
