MUCH ACHIEVED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 196, 20 August 1938, Page 13

MUCH ACHIEVED.

AIR REARMAMENT.

ORGANISATION LAGGING.

POSITION IN ENGLAND. (Prom Our Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The opinion that very substantial progress had been made with air rearmament 4n Britain, but that organisation was' still lagging behind the programme, was expressed by Mr. E. R. Cooper, who, with his wife and son, arrived by the Rualiine to-day. Mr. Cooper has been attached as a technician to the Royal aircraft establishment at Farnborough, England, where he has been engaged on aerodynamic and aeronautic research work. He explained that the Farnborough research establishment was the only one of its kind in England, and employed approximately 3000 workers, of whom 300 to 400 were highly-qualified technicians.

Mr. Cooper said that in view of the rapid developments now proceeding in New Zealand with regard to aircraft expansion, he had come to the Dominion with the object of seeking engagement with the New Zealand Government. If he was unsuccessful in this, however, he proposed to go to Melbourne, where an aeronautical laboratory was to be established in connection with the Royal Australian Air Force. Increase in Employment. The, expansion of the programme in armazheiits had undoubtedly led to a great increase in employment, and a much greater circulation of money. He did not think the armament industry was encroaching to any serious extent upon the functions of normal industry, but, on the contrary, that it provided extra avenues of employment and for industrial enterprise.

"People -in England expect war, although they don't know where it is coming from," said Mr. Cooper. Nevertheless, there was no feeling of panic. The people were looking chiefly to the United States for assistance in the event of hostilities, and in this connection a recent broadcast speech of the American Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull, had attracted widespread interest and a most favourable reaction. It was generally believed that war was most likely to be caused as the outcome of national alliances and their resulting entanglements."

Mr. Cooper, who has the master of science degree, was awarded the 1851 Exhibition science research scholarship at Canterbury College in 1933.