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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 0230.PDF
FLIGHT, MARCH 11. 1932 Air Council and Department of the Secretary, £301,500 ; salaries and allowances of the Department ol the Chief of the Air Staff, £111,500 ; salaries and allowances of the Department of the Air Member for Personnel, £46,200 ; salaries and allowances of the Department of the Air Member for Supply and Research, £144,000 ; salaries and allowances of the Directorate of Civil Aviation and the Accidents Branch, £21,300 ; pay of messengers, cleaners, etc., £22,600 ; contingent expenses, £900. Gross total, £648,000. Appropriations in aid, £3,000. Net total, £645,000. Net decrease, £11,000. Vote 11. Half-pay Pensions and Other Non-effective Services.—Rewards to officers, warrant officers, non-com missioned officers and aircraftmen, £350 ; half-pay of officers, £7,000 ; service and disability retired pay and gratuities of officers and nurses, £164,000 ; wound pen sions, officers, £530 ; service and disability pensions and gratuities, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and aircraftmen, £61,800 ; pensions, gratuities and allowances to widows, children, etc., of deceased officers and airmen, £25,500 ; civil non-effective payments, recurrent charges, £9,700 ; civil non-effective payments, gratuities and other non-recurrent charges, £7,900 ; injury grants, £8,720 ; commutation of retired pay, wound pensions, etc., £21,800 ; relief fund, £500 ; miscellaneous non-effective payments, £200. Gross total, £308,000. Appropriations in aid, £22,000. Net total, £286,000. Net increase, £32,000. MEMORANDIUM BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR AIR >flr S in previous years, the Air Estimates are accom- £""5\|| panied by a Memorandum by the Secretary of . V ill State. This reads as follows: — Air Estimates for 1932, at a net figure of £17,400,000, show a decline of £700,000 on those for the current year. Appropriations in Aid are, however, down by nearly £800,000 (mainly on Vote 3—Technical and Warlike Stores), so that the gross total is some £1,500,000 lower at £19,702,700. The decline is the direct and inevitable result of the current financial crisis; and, whilst a number of economies of a permanent character have been effected, it has only been possible to achieve so large a reduction by the post ponement of many services, which, under normal condi tions, would be regarded as essential, and by makeshift expedients which cannot be repeated. There has been no option but to sacrifice a number of important items in the programme, but effort has been concentrated on pro ducing the results demanded of the Royal Air Force by the nation's necessities with the minimum loss of efficiency. In particular, no action has been or will be taken which might in any way adversely affect the safety of flying personnel. In pursuance of this general policy, a par ticularly large proportionate reduction has been made in the Vote for Works and Buildings, though the replacement of uneconomical and unsatisfactory war-time accommoda tion at certain stations is long overdue. Further explanations will be found below beneath the several Vote headings. The only special feature to which it is necessary to draw attention is the final disappearance of any reference to the " super-cut," following on a recom mendation of the Public Accounts Committee. The " super-cut " on Vote 3 (Technical and Warlike Stores) had already been eliminated last year; in the case of Vote 4 (Works and Buildings) it has this year been re placed by a suitable provision for anticipated delays in the execution of major contracts, to an amount agreed with the Treasury, but not shown, as heretofore, on the face of Estimates. For the rest, there are decreases total ling £758,000 on all Votes except 1, 8 and 11, on which there are small increases amounting in all to £58,000, thus giving the net reduction of £700,000 above mentioned. The table below gives the customary summarised com parison with the corresponding figures for 1931 : — Gross Estimate Deduct Fleet Air Arm grant . . Deduct other Appropriations in aid Net Estimate Dis 1932. i 19,702,70(1 1,025,000 1,277,700 17,400,000 irmamem 1931. £ 21,197,200 1.126,000 1,971,200 18,100,000 + or — - 1,494,500 101,000 - 693,500 - 700,000 His Majesty's Government having subscribed to the Armaments Truce, no new units are being formed in 1932. In the normal course a minimum of two new Home Defence Squadrons would have been added under the programme initiated in 1923, but subsequently three times retarded, with the result that ten regular squadrons still remain to be formed for its completion. Meantime, despite general recognition of the growing dependence of the British Empire on air power as on sea power, the serious disparity between the first-line strength of the Royal Air Force and foreign air services remains as tangible evidence of the efforts made by this country ever since the war to further the cause of disarmament, alike by precept and practical example. His Majesty's Government would view the situation with anxiety, but for their earnest hope and expectation that the Disarmament Conference now in session at Geneva will bring about a reduction in air armaments. Strength and Distribution of the Royal Air Force The increases in the strength of the Royal Air Force foreshadowed in last year's memorandum, viz., three new regular squadrons for Home Defence and one additional flight for the Fleet Air Arm, have been duly implemented. As a result, the present total strength of the Royal Air Force is 75£ regular squadrons, including the equivalent of 13^ squadrons in the Fleet Air Arm. The Home Defence Force now comprises 42 of the 52 squadrons envisaged in the 1923 programme, and of these 13 are non-regular—8 auxiliary and 5 cadre. The decision not to proceed with the formation of any new units in 1932 entails a further retardation of this programme for the fourth time since its original initiation. The distribution of units as between Home and Overseas remains unchanged. Operational .-aid other Activities (1) Overseas.—The only operations of importance in which the Royal Air Force was called upon to take part during the past twelve months were in Northern Iraq. As a result, the Iraq Army, acting in co-operation with the Royal Air Force, secured the surrender of a Sheikh whose turbulent activities had long been a focus of unrest in Kurdistan. Small scale action was also taken on the North-West Frontier of India and at Aden. The normal activities of reconnaissance and communication were, how ever, fully maintained, and the returns received from the several Air Commands show an actual increase in flying hours as compared with 1930. The constant vigil main tained year in and year out by the squadrons on the North-West Frontier of India and in other oversea theatres such as Iraq, Trans-Jordan and Aden calls for a large volume of flying over the mountainous or desert terrain and under arduous climatic and other conditions. An interest ing episode during the year was the participation of the Royal Air Force in the measures to deal with the dis turbances which broke out in Cyprus in October. Seven aircraft of No. 216 (Bomber-Transport) Squadron were employed for the conveyance overseas at short notice of a body of reinforcing troops (126 officers and men in all, in addition to 30 personnel of the Royal Air Force) by air from Cairo to Nicosia and four aircraft from No. 45 Squad ron were also flown to Cyprus and carried out a series of flights on patrol or reconnaissance. Earlier in the year aircrait of No. 36 Squadron were flown from Singapore for similar duties over rebel areas in Burma. Some useful survey work has been carried out in Trans- Jofdon, where an area of the Jordan Valley, the mapping of which was urgently required for the Colonial Office, was photographed, and the War Office were thus enabled to produce maps, the making of which would otherwise have entailed a lengthy and troublesome ground survey. It is proposed in 1932 to make similar use of aircraft to implement the arrangements which have lately been agreed between the British and Ethiopian Governments for the delimitation of the frontier between Abyssinia and Somali- land. 214
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