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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0167.PDF
MARCH 19, 1925 Commander Burney said we needed today to have an Imperial stocktaking of the whole of our methods of defence, organisation, and expenditure. Since the War we had spent over £1,000,000,000 on arma- ments, and today our expenditure on armaments was at the rate of 2s. in the pound of the income tax. The lack of any sound doctrine was making our present organisation chaotic. The Air Ministry, in taking responsi- bility for commercial aviation, was usurping the functions of the Board of Trade, and he was against a fighting department, staffed by persons who had not been trained in commerce, interfering in commercial pursuits. For the first time we had a clear demarcation between the defence of the heart of the Empire and the defence of its outer limbs, the Dominions. The defence of this country was aerial, the defence of the outer limbs was naval. The policy of the Labour Government in throwing over the Singapore scheme, and at the same time voting more money for the aerial defence of this country, was not understood in the Dominions, where it had an unfortunate effect. Unless we could satisfy the Dominions that we were working on some consistent policy, we were not likely to obtain their financial co-operation. They had not got the money to acquire all the armament that they would like. They had, therefore, to go through a selective process and concentrate on those that were vital. This was not a question of whether the Fleet should have an air arm or of the individual training of men. It was a matter of how they were to demarcate as between expenditure for the defence of these islands and the expenditure necessary for the defence of the Empire as a whole. They would not get any satisfactory solution of this problem of the disbursement of money for the fighting Services until they had a combined staff of the Air, the Navy, and the Army, so that none of the functions of these three forces should overlap. The point he wished to move towards was that it was necessary that the AdmiraJty and the Air Ministry should be combined into one Department. The more aircraft developed, the bigger they got, the more they were used so that the crew lived on board and carried all their stores, the more would they become, in essence, what they termed naval vessels today. But they could not have any ordered scheme of evolution as to the inter- change of the functions of aircraft and of naval craft unless these two forces were combined. What they wanted was a unified air command. The Admiralty might swallow the Air Ministry or the Air Ministry the Admiralty—it did not matter which it was, so long as they coalesced—but, unless they got this unified air command, he did not see how they were going to cut down unnecessary expenditure. With it, he believed it would be possible to save between £5,000,000 and £10,000,000 a year upon their >armament programme, and, at the same time, obtain greater security than was the case at present. He asked that a Committee should be set up to investigate the matter and report to the Cabinet, so that they might find out how they might become strong at vital points, how to save £5,000,000 to £10,000,000 a year, and how they might stop the continual bickering between Departments. Mr. Spencer appealed for more generosity for the young married officers in the Air Service. He suggested that if a young officer was killed his widow should receive a pension, although the officer may not have reached the official age for marriage. Sir A. Burgoyne said the main point of the debate was where the Air Force stood in relation to our general Imperial policy. They wanted a unitv of purpose in the whole sphere of defence. The decreasing of the other Services, and the increasing of the Air Force, meant that the latter was going to be the force of the future. He suggested the creation of a Central Minister of Defence, with Under Secretaries for each of the three fighting branches. That had been done in other countries and could be done here. He did not think that civil aviation, which was purely a commercial affair, should be under the control of a righting Service. More money should be spent on it, and the machines brought up-to-date. Colonel Wedgwood said that the Labour Party stood for real economy, which might be achieved in the institution of a Ministry of Defence, and the prevention of new competition in armaments with foreign countries. Commander Bellairs said the question of effecting economy resolved itself into having one supreme Minister, who would be able to say to the experts with regard ,to a proposed expendi- ture : " Is it vital, or merely useful ? " That meant a Minister of Defence at the head of the three Services. One point which emerged from the present situation was that the Admiralty had virtually told the Cabinet that they could not maintain an efficient fleet unless thev controlled their own air arm. The Cabinet h^ shouldered responsi- bility, and the Admiralty had a scrap of mper which would exculpate them from blame in the vent of disaster. But that would not satisfy the public. He hoped the Cabinet would consider the matter pr^tably on the lines of amalgamating the Air and Admiralty togetWi. All he cared for was unity of control and command. Rear-Admiral Beamish thought that the Navy should work in, on, and above the sea, just as the Army should work in, on, and above the land. The necessity for an independent Air Ministry had never been clear to him. 'Ihe existence of that Ministry complicated Imperial defence and added largely and unnecessarily to our financial obligations. Colonel Crookshank said he thought the Air Defence Brigades should be in closer co-operation with the Air Force, But the Service could not be left entirely to the Territorial Service. Ii there was a sudden air raid it would be necessary to call up the ground troops at once, and it would not be possible quickly to get the Territorial troops together to oppose the aerial invader. Mr. Wells said airships were vital to this country in order to bring the Dominions into closer connection with us, and he hoped the Government would press and do all they could to build airships. Sir F. Sykes, referring to the expansion of squadrons expressed the opinion that, basically, it was unsound to increase them until a sound standard oi efficiency had been achieved. As to the reserves, he could not understand why such a complicated, uneconomical, and overlapping system was necessary, when they could have kept to a simple organ- isation to carry out the necessity of reserves. He hoped the Secretary for Air would consider the ques- tion of the reallocation of the funds at his disposal. in the direction of greater research and experiment and more civil flying throughout the world. Sir Harry Brittain said whatever Britain's status in the air might be, there was no denial of the fact that we took the greatest possible care in training the finest material it is possible to obtain as pilots, in the organisation of our aerodromes and in the manufacture, the testing, and the re-testing of our aeroplanes and engines. It was universally agreed that no country paid more attention to these all-important details, and he was convinced that the formation of light aeroplane clubs would do much in advancing this great science. On the civil side, although there were countries which might have flown more miles then we had, there was no country which had reduced the risk to a minimum as had this country in the flying of civil 'planes. The system carried on at the Croydon aerodrome would be very difficult to improve, but it would be an enormous advantage to civil aviation if a site for an aerodrome could be found nearer to the heart of London. In France there was a huge output in the manufacture of engines and planes, and he wished to ask the Minister if it was possible to guarantee some similar continuity of work in this country, so that orders could be sent out on something like a three years' basis. At present, orders were sent out by the Air Ministry, and the firms carrying out those orders were under high pressure to complete the orders before the end of the financial year. When these order were com- pleted, there was a lull throughout the whole of the manu- facturing firms in the country and a gap in the work, which must tend towards unemployment. Sir Samuel Hoare, referring to Mr. Snowden's recent statement that neither he nor his party took any responsi- bility for the proposed Estimates, said that when the Air Estimates were introduced from the benches opposite, Lord Thomson and Mr. Thomas had time after time said that as far as the first stage of the extension scheme was concerned they took full responsibility for carrying them into effect. If Mr. Snowden would investigate he would discover that in almost every case where there was an item for increase of expenditure in this year's Estimates it was due to decisions that were taken when Lord Thomson was in office and when Mr. Snowden, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, authorised the decisions. The 21 millions which the House was now asked to authorise was not only for the Home Defence Squadron, but for the Fleet Air arm services of the Middle East, Army co-operation squadrons, and other squadrons in every part of the world. As the Air Force expanded the overhead charges would tend to decrease. With regard to home defence, they were going slowly, definitely with the intention of making the foundation as sure as they could, and also of ensuring that the technique and quality should be as high as possible. He thought they were holding the balance equally between the two. In regard to the two airships which were being built by 167
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