DEFENCE PLANS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 253, 24 October 1936, Page 9

DEFENCE PLANS.

AIRCRAFT FACTORY.

AUSTRALIAN ENTERPRISE.

FORMATION OF COMPANY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 16. One of the most interesting features of the Federal defence programme submitted by Sir A. Parkhill to Canberra some months ago was the scheme for the manufacture of aeroplanes of all types within Australia. The Minister for Defence told the House that arrangements had been made for the formation of a company with £600,000 capital, supplied in various proportions by four of the most powerful industrial concerns in the Commonswealth—Broken Hill Proprietary, Broken Hill Associated Smelters, Imperial Chemical Industries (Australia and New Zealand) and General MotorsHolden. The purpose of the company is to produce not only aircraft but aero engines and though the enterprise is to be developed gradually the Minister predicted that "at no distant date the aircraft manufacturing industry will be established in Australia 011 such a scale and under such conditions as will make it a valuable not only towards Australia's, but also toward Imperial defence." The formation of this company is the outcome of 'reports and recommendations submitted by experts sent overseas by Australian companies named above and at their expense to study aircraft and aero engine manufacture in Great Britain, Europe and America. "Not for Profit." Sir A. Parkhill assured Parliament that the new enterprise would have all, .the requisite technical equipment and adequate financial support at its command, and he was loudly applauded when he concluded his speech with the remark that this, was not a profit-mak-ing venture and that it was encouraging to know that in Australia there were industrialists "prepared to do something for the country in which they are making their money, and to help in placing the . defences of • Australia on something like reasonable order." All this seems eminently satisfactory, and those directly concerned with the industrial aspects of all our public problems are naturally pleased to know that a new industry is to be started at once, employing large numbers of : workers and distributing great sums in wages. Such an industry will be a boon, more particularly to. the centre of population where it is located; and this is the point at which trouble has begun. For it was inevitable that there should be some sort of rivalry between the various States in this matter, and the three cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide have already pressed their claims for consideration upon the Federal authorities in quite definite and emphatic terms. The Case For Sydney. The case for Sydney is based upon the fact that.New South Wales has a great economic advantage over the other States in- its possession of the most valuable resources of coal, iron and steel in the Commonwealth, and in the "heavy" industries which have grown up around them. Keeping this in view, and remembering always the bitter provincial and parochial rivalry which ' -.3 long existed between Sydney and Melbourne, even New Zealanders who have no first hand knowledge of Australia may be able to understand the outburst of surprise and indignation aroused in this city by the announcement from the Southern capital that in 'the opinion of the Defence Department Sydney is disqualified from competing for the new air factory because "it is more open to enemy attack by sea than Melbourne." It is hardly necessary to waste time over the protest thus put forward to jpstify Melbourne in claiming this muchcoveted prize, for, as the "Daily Telegraph" has promptly pointed out, the fact that Melbourne" is. a few miles further from the sea than Sydney, does not make it less vulnerable to- air attack. "In the event of war all vital points will be subject to attack, and will have to be defended by anti- . aircraft guns and 'planes; and to claim immunity for Melbourne in this respect is sheer nonsense." I ■' Transfer of Property. » But there is more in this argument than may at first meet the eye. For we are now informed that Sir A. Parkhill is negotiating with Mr. Dunstan-, the Victorian Premier, for the transfer of the Fishermen's Bank Reserve (Port Melbourne) to the Defence Department as an air port. The Aviation Controller has been discussing this matter with the State Government for a long time past, but Mr. Dunstan and his colleagues have hitherto resisted all argument and persuasion to induce them to make the transfer. Now, however, all difficulties appear to have been overcome, and on the authority of the "Sydney Morning Herald's" Melbourne correspondent, "If the reservation of Fishermen's Bank is agreed upon, it is fully expected that the aircraft factory will be established in Melbourne. Sir A. Parkhill's troubles may not be oyer yet, as Mr. Butler, the South Australian Premier, is coming to Melbourne at once to push the claims of Adelaide. But so far as the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne is concerned, it looks very much as if in this matter of the aircraft factory, Melbourne has scored at Sydney's expense once mo v e.