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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0630.PDF
220 FLIGHT. MARCH JO, THE OUTLOOK (CONTINUED) The Price of ThingsW ELL, the taxpayer knows the worst. Or does he ? According to the Statement relating to Defence he will be asked to find, during the financial years 1937-1941, not less than fifteen hun- dred million pounds, for, of course, the taxpayer always. foots the bill in the end, even if the fact is cleverly dis- guised from him. If he does not pay directly he pays indirectly. It is a rather eloquent commentary on the magnitude of the figures involved nowadays that the Statement on Defence has ceased to print the amounts for expenditure in ordinary figures, and has evolved a curious mixed grill to enable the ordinary reader to understand what is meant. For instance, the Statement points out that the three Defence Departments are expected to spend this year a total of £278^ millions. Put that way, it does not look such a terrible lot, does it? But we shall still be expected to find £278,250,000. In spite of the fact that the State- ment expects 1939 to be the peak year of armament ex- penditure, we may still live to see the astronomer's " light year " introduced as the unit of expenditure on armaments. The pity of it all is that much of this expenditure could have been avoided. Had Great Britain maintained a sensible level of defence during the last ten years there would in the first place have been no need to go to such fantastic expenditures as are now necessary. Certain other nations would have hesitated had Great Britain given a clear and unmistakable indication of her intention to rely largely on her own strength. Instead of that she reduced her defence forces almost to vanishing point. That "gesture" is notv proving an expensive one, and we are having to pay more owing to the panic expansion than if we had spread the ordering of the same amount of defence material over a greater number of years. The Air EstimatesT URNING from the subject of general defence to that of air defence, it is found that a total of £111£ millions (to use the mixed grill designation) is budgeted for in the Air Estimates. The whole of this amount will not have to be borne by the air vote, as the Fleet Air Arm Grant, other appropriations-in-aid, and a sum of £30 millions from the Consolidated Fund, amount to approximately £38 millions, but the nation still has to find that .money, no matter under which head it is being spent. The net Estimate to be voted is thus one of £73! millions. In this connection it is interesting to recall that ten years ago the corresponding figure was £i6£ millions. In the 1928 Air Estimates the total numbers to be voted for the R.A.F. were 32,500. This year the figure has in- creased to 83,000. How the cost has gone up is shown by the fact that in 1928 the Net Air Estimate represented exactly £500 per head of the 32,500 voted. In the 1938 Estimates the net cost has gone up to £885 per man. The fact is mentioned without any attempt to deduce any lesson. As in previous years, by far the largest individual vota is No. 3, Technical and Warlike Stores, the gross total cf which ^mounts to £66,734,000, Appropriations-in-aid reduce this to £42,631,000. Hitherto it has been cus- tomary in the Air Estimates to explain how much in the appropriate sub-head was set aside for aircraft, engines, air- craft spares, and engine spares. This year, for the first time, the Estimates maintain a discreet silence on this point and merely state that the total sum for sub-head C of Vote 3 is £42,680,000. This figure includes balloons, upon which we used to spend but a modest £32,000. How much we spend upon them now is not stated, but the balloon barrage scheme must cost a considerable sum. The Estimates merely mention under sub-head C of Vote 3 that "provision is also made for the purchase and repair by contract of balloons, winches, and hydrogen cylinders." Warlike Stores and Supplies, sub-head D of Vote 3, is the next largest, with close upon £13 millions. This sub- head covers armament and ammunition, and also petrol and oil for the R.A.F. Experimental and Research Establishments share a rela- tively modest £623,000, of which the R.A.E., Farnborough, accounts for the lion's share with £459,500. Significantly enough, with the exception of the Airworthiness Depart- ment at Farnborough, the Research Station at Bawdsey shows the next largest amount with 745,300. Helping Civil Aviation AT long last the Air Estimates bear evidence of a willing. /-% ness to give civil aviation the support it needs. Tin- •*• -^ net total under this vote is £2,925,000, a figure which represents an increase of £610,000 compared with last year. The explanatory note to Vote 8 explains that the increase is due mainly to the additional subsidy pay- ments arising from the introduction of the full Empire air mail scheme and to provision for improvements to ground organisation in the United Kingdom, in accordance with the recommendations of the Maybury Committee. The figure does not include the salaries of the headquarters staff of the Director-General of Civil Aviation, which are shown under another vote and amount of £55,621. For the first time in history the Civil Aviation Vote contains an item of £20,000 for "training of civil pilots." The presence of this item in the vote is not explained, but perhaps there is some justification for believing that it refers to the scheme, mentioned in the Maybury Report, for training short-service officers as Sfirline pilots. Some- thing of the sort has been badly needed for a long time, past experience being that an officer who has left the R.A.F. is of very little use to airline companies until he has forgotten most of his R.A.F. training and learnt to approach civil flying from a totally different angle. The severe criticisms of Croydon appear to have borne fruit. London's Terminal Aerodrome is to have some £215,000 spent on it, a new hangar being estimated to require £"120,000, and improvements to the landing am £42,000. Subsidies and Grants total £1,243,000, Imperial Airways and British Airways sharing the bulk of £1,167,000. The light plane clubs have had their subsidies increased from £35,000 to £40,000, and the gliding clubs receive as before a grant of £5,000. Grants towards the expenses of the Air Registration Board amount to /io.ooo. Paying the PiperI N the Naval Estimates just published an increase of over a million and a half pounds appears under the heading of Fleet Air Arm. Part of this is payment for the train- ing facilities to be provided at R.A.F. flying schools fsr naval pilots. Under the old dispensation the Air Ministry made no charge for this training, because the pilots all held R.A.F. commissions, temporary or otherwise. The Navy, therefore, got its pilots trained free, as the Army still does. From now onward naval pilots will gradually cease to hold R.A.F. commissions, and therefore it is only right that the Admiralty should pay for their training. This point may seem only a matter of accounting, of small interest to the taxpayer, as the whole cost of defence has to come out of taxes or loans. It is, however, im- portant that the public should be told clearly what each of the defence Services costs. So long as the cost of the Fleet Air Arm was included in the gross estimate for the Air Ministry the public was inclined to think that air defence was more expensive than it actually was and that naval defence was relatively cheaper. Not everybody could appreciate the meaning of an appropriation-in-aid. For this year the amount expended by the Admiralty on the Fleet Air Arm again appears as an appropriation-"1' aid in the Air Estimates, but when the transfer of the F.A.A. has been completed, then the cost of that arm wi" be a matter for the Admiralty alone and will be paid tot directly out of the Naval Estimates—except, of course, the charge for teaching the naval pilots to fly.
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