BRITAIN’S AIR STRENGTH

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22358, 23 March 1938, Page 11

BRITAIN’S AIR STRENGTH

ESTIMATES APPROVED BY HOUSE

QUESTIONS OF PARITY RAISED

DEFINITE FIGURES NOT TO BE DISCLOSED

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.}

(Received March 22, 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, March 21

A debate on the air estimates arose in the House of Commons when Mr W. Wedgwood Benn (Labour, Gorton), in moving the reduction of the personnel by 100. said knowledge of practical flying and engineering among the higher ranks of the Royal Air Force did-not agree with the standard Lord Trenchard had laid down. He added that it did not compare with that in the United States, where every officer must do a minimum of 100 hours’ flying a year, and also a flight of 1000 miles. Moreover, the German Air Force and also the Government, were largely controlled by practical airmen. , Mr Winston Churchill (Conservative), raising the question of parity, said the Minister for the Co-ordina-tion of Defence (Sir Thomas Inskip) appeared to be unaware of Earl Baldwin’s statement that firstline strength should be the criterion of parity. “It is most unsatisfactory,” he said, “that when first-line strength is deliberately adopted, we should be invited to accept new, vague standards which, I believe, is due to the Government’s being unable to maintain its pledges.” The Practical Viewpoint

The Under-Secretary for Air (Mr A. J. Muirhead), in reply, said there was no better standard or parity than the practical viewpoint of whether or not Britain was inferior to any country within striking distance. Mr Churchill interjected: “No.” Mr Muirhead said members might demand definite figures of the British and German strengths, but it would not be in the public interest to supply them. He explained that the 1500 aircraft which were to have been ready in March, 1937, arrived in mid-summei, but there was no guarantee that they were up to date. The second phase of the rearmament was 1750 metropolitan up-to-date aircraft to be supplied by March, 1939. This programme was now in operation, and there was no reason to believe that the programme would not be fulfilled with machines fully comparable with those simultaneously in the possession of other countries. He added that the Government was continually reviewing these problems. In this connexion he mentioned the decision to reexamine the position in the light of the events in Austria. Mr Muirhead said the programme for the forthcoming year provided for 1368 short service officers, compared with 1190 last year. The Government also had thousands of reserve pilots. Concessions to-Dominion Pilots Lieutenant-Commander R. F. Tufnell (Conservative) asked the Government to consider concessions to Australian and New Zealand pilots who joined the Royal Air Force for five years’ training and did not receive sufficient yearly leave to make the journey to their homes. Accordingly he suggested that they might be allowed to accumulate their leave until they had four or five months, so as to make the journey worthwhile.

Mr F. Montague (Labour) referred to Mr Muirhead’s inability to guarantee that the 1750 aeroplanes promised by 1939 would be up to date. There was a necessity for an investigation of the military side of aviation, especially when the Berlin-Rome axis was hardening and the dictators were making themselves invincible, and numerous problems in. the Mediterranean, Suez Canal, and Czechoslovakia required something like a war mentality in production and administration. Mr Muirhead promised to note Lieutenant - Commander Tufnell’s suggestion.

Mr Wedgwood Benn withdrew his. motion, and the House confirmed the Air Ministry’s estimates.