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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0547.PDF
FLIGHT, MARCH 14. 1929 T conquer the air but also to surmount the difficulties of the world below,the spirit cheerfully and at the same time intelligently to accept the tasks that are imposed upon the Air Force and the determination successfullyto carry them out. " These things I mention, not because I have the right or the wish totake credit for any of them, but because I desire the House to realise the progress that has been achieved and the good fortune that I have had intying my wagon to the flying chariot of the British airmen." DEBATE ON AIR ESTIMATES HE following is a rjsum,' of the Debate on the Air Estimates whichopened in the House of Commons on March 7 :— Mr. Benn (Aberdeen X.—Lab.), who opened the Debate, after congratu-lating the Air Minister on his address, referred to the retirement of Sir Hugh Trenchard, and wished to say, what he felt very many members of theAir Force felt, that the Service was about to lose the services of one of the greatest pioneers the Air Force had ever known. While the Air Minister'sspeech was extremely interesting as far as facts were concerned, he did not think the problem had been tackled which ought to have been tackled byMinisters today. The public was sick and tired of the notion of war, and was completely indifferent to any proposal to make provision for war.Fortunately, the Air Minister was in a totally different position from the War Minister or the First Lord of the Admiralty, because there was apositive side to his work ; it was not concerned solely with the work of destruction, because he represented a Ministry which was charged withthe development and encouragement of what he (Mr. Uenn) believed to be one of the greatest potential aids for the service of humanity that sciencehad provided. Any Air Minister would have t<; answer the question of what he was doing, in the absence of any international agreement, to defendthis country from a sudden blow, delivered, it might be, at a few hours' notice. He would ask the Air Minister, Was there anybody in the Cabinetwho, when the Service Estimates came forward, looked at all three and decided how the money was to be distributed among the three of them ?That was a very important question. Or was it a case, when the Cabinet met, of the Admiralty first by virtue of seniority, then the War Ministryby virtue of pertinacity, and then the Air Ministry, last of all, taking what was left ? Were dress allowances to be made to both the ugly sisters, andwas the Air always to sit among the cinders ? He thought there was no safety either in the Air Force or any other form of armament—the onlysafety was in disarmament. He, therefore, asked the Air Minister what had been his contribution towards the settlement of this vital question,the reduction of the most dangerous and devilish of all weapons of war ? What had the Cabinet done, if they could not do anything at Genevatowards general disarmament in connection with our nearest neighbours '? Had they done anything at all t We had entered the Covenant of theLeague of Nations ; we had forgiven the debt, or a great part of it; we had signed the Kellogg Pact; we had undertaken under the LocarnoTreaty to defend French territory. What had we in return ? Was it impossible to conceive that we could have made some agreement which,at any rate, would have relieved us of what he admitted was a potential danger, against which the Air Minister was perfectly right to place us in,t condition of adequate defence ? As regards the |>ositive aide of the work of the Air Ministry—Civil Aviation—he believed that it would be adisastrous thing if the pursuit of disarmament led us to do anything to lame or hamstring this enormous human development. Its potentialitieswere immense, and no one had spoken of it better than had the Air Minister himself. He believed in civil aviation. It was essential that we shouldbe in free and open communication not only with our own Dominions, but with every part of the world. What was the Minister doing to secure forGreat Britain in the air the position to which we were entitled ? The air •should be an open highway for all the ]>eoples of the world, and we shouldcontribute our part to making it so. (Mr. Benn here gave comparative figures regarding mileage, number of aircraft, aerodromes, etc.) If Imperialairways really meant concealed military approaches, that would be entirely iut of harmony with the spirit of the times. Which country, if they were-loing on with the process of war, really had today the leadership of Europe ? He did not think that many people would hesitate to say that it was Germany,disarmed as she was by the Peace Treaty. She had an enormous civil flying machine and potential accumulations of stores and mobilisation arrange-ments, and, what was much more important, the practised pilot. The real problem facing the Air Ministry today was— What were they goingto do to promote the development of civil aviation and yet prevent it from being turned to purposes of war ? He suggested there should be someuniversal treaty which would give freedom of the air to those who were prepared to accept in return the obligations of internationalization, andto keep their particular machines and lines out of the power of their own national war offices, so that if war did break out the great internationaldr lines could take no part, because their pilots were internationals and the whole framework—staff, machinery, etc.—would be swept aside out of thecontrol of the War Ministries in every country. Lieut.-Col. Moore-Brabazon (Chatham—Con.) also paid tribute to AirMarshal Treuchard, and referred to the question of the position (promotion, etc.) of Air Force officers. Regarding national flying services, he supportedthese with all his heart. In 1924 he had advocated the formation of flying clubs, but though these were all very well in their way, there were, after all,only a limited number of people who wanted to go up for the mere pleasure of flying. If there was one person who would go up for joy flying, therewere 50 who wanted to get something out of it in the way of flying from place to place, and that was the next step in the development of thisbranch of flying. The possibility of exploring the whole, of England was. opened up, and he hoped that the old flying clubs, which had done so muchservice, would not put a spoke in the wheel of the advance. Within its own ambit the Air Ministry did its duty very efficiently, but he had a complaintagainst the Government as a whole. The House had been promised a day in which to debate national defence as a whole. When were they goingto have that day t As taxpayers they wanted a reduction of national expenditure, and they did not see any way of getting it except atong thatline, and as the people who vote the money they were going to have it. He did not say it-was necessary to have a Ministry of Defence—that wa^a thing to be inquired into. Hut the Commons of England had a right to talk about that subject in its entirety. Mr. Churchill had put the Air Forcein charge of Iraq and Transjordan, and we had saved millions of pounds thereby. Hut what about the Sudan, Somaliland, the Indian frontief~and coastal defence ? Surely along those lines there was a possibility of national economy. The Prime Minister said at the beginning of the presentParliament that he would hack a way through the vested interests that lay in the way of progress. If he had hacked his way through the twogreat vested interests of the War Office and the Admiralty there would have been a general lessening of armaments today, even though more, had beenspent on the air. Peace iu our time, the speaker said in conclusion, did not mean somnolence on the front bench. The snores of the Governmentwere echoing through the country. Capt. Guest (Bristol N.—Lib.)" said that in view of the additional dutiesthe Air Ministry had taken on their shoulders these Estimates were an absolute model of economy. Referring to the policy of substitutiom, whichhe was satisfied would be successful, he thought this problem should be examined more closely, and he asked why should we not have some substi-tution for the Navy ' The taxpayer could be saved untold millions by the Air Force taking over Malta. As one particularly interested in civilaviation he was glad to hear that the Cape to Cairo service, in regard to which, when he pressed for it last year, he was told he would have to waitfor three more years before it rould be undertaken, was now being poshed forward. He congratulated the Minister on his success. It was the firstmilestone in the right hon. gentleman's programme of an Imperial Air Service. Questions had been asked about the Civil Aviation organisationwhich he had been attempting to launch in this country. He had felt that it was not fair for one to be asking questions in the House with regard tocivil aviation unless one took off his coat and tried to do something himself to advance it. The success or failure of his scheme meant nothing to himin any shape or form. He was not getting any fee from the company. He thought the London area was badly provided with flying facilities. In theflying clubs there were long waiting lists of men anxious to fly, bnt wht> could not obtain either accommodation or material. He and his friendsput their heads together to see whether they could not start a larger organisation. During the negotiations they heard of a much wider proposaliu the hands of Col. Edwards, and they got together and amalgamated the two schemes. The Air Ministry, having carefully investigated the proposedorganisation, came to the conclusion that it would be of great beoefit to the country in providing aerodromes, landing grounds, and a reserve oftrained pilots, and an agreement was reached which was set out in the White Pajier. He regretted the squabble between his organisation andthe Light Aeroplane Club. That was the one thing he wanted to avoid from the very start, and therefore he laid his scheme before the GeneralCouncil of the clubs, explained it to them personally, and got from them the assurance that his scheme was not in any way trespassing on the groundthey had already marked out for themselves. There had been some little rift in this agreement, but he thought it could be settled. They were avery valuable organisation, and it would be a great pity to let them disintegrate for the want of a few thousand pounds. The organisationwhich he had tried to set up had two main objects. First, it met the* needs of the private owner ; and, secondly, it would help to develop in this countryan internal service by commercial taxi-services. It had a great deal more in it than joy-riding; time was money, and to the salesman the real valueof cross-country flying lay in the fact that he could be carried across country in one-third of the time' taken by train. It would provide the State witha reservoir of pilots, uniformly trained, and it would give employment to a certain number of short-time officers. There was also the advaatage tothe nation, admitte-i by the form in which the grant was given, that more aerodromes would be available for military purposes. In conclusion, thehon. and gallant meinlier joined in the tribute paid to Sir Hugh Treaenarri, but for whom, he said, there would have been nn independent Air Pt>rce. RE-EQUIPPING THE ROYAL AIR FORCE The Handley-Page " Clive " Troop Carrier, two The Handley-Page " Hinaidi " Bomber, two Bristo Bristol "Jupiter" engines. "Jupiter" engines. 223
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