DOMINION VISIT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 99, 20 January 1939, Page 10

DOMINION VISIT

British Air Ministry

Mission

GOVERNMENT’S OBJECT

Making Best Possible Use

Of Occasion

The British Air Ministry announcement that, in accordance with the wishes of the New. Zealand Government, the air mission which is going to Australia next month will proceed to New Zealand on the conclusion of its Australian visit to discuss with the Government the possibility of the manufacture of aircraft in the Dominion, was referred to by the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, in an interview last evening.

The Government’s job, Mr. Savage said, was to make the best possible use of the occasion and obtain all the advice it could to see what further steps could be taken to enable New Zealand to stand on her .own feet in the event of the country being isolated during a world war. The Prime Minister said' the Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain the Hon. R. A. Cochrane, was entitled to most of the credit for the organization of the' Royal New Zealand Air Force, which had been put into effect during the last two or three years. “I think that remarkable progress has been made, because we did start off from scratch,” Mr. Savage said. ‘‘There is a very* high degree of efficiency in the force already.” The Minister in Charge of Aviation, Mr. Jones, said yesterday that, as the air mission would arrive in Australia about the middle of March, it would probably arrive in New Zealand about the end of that month. If the Government could obtain particulars of the information required by the mission this would be ready before.it arrived in the Dominion. GOVERNMENT’S REQUEST Vital Development In Imperial Defence LONDON, January 18. The Air Minister, Sir Kingsiey Wood, commenting on the proposed visit of the British Air Mission to New Zealand, said: ‘‘The immediate dispatch of a strong Air Mission to Australia and New Zea-' land is important and significant, as the visit is at the direct request of their Governments, and is an additional sign of the unity of the British Commonwealth of Nations and our firm co-opera-tion in Empire defence. “The new source of supply of aircraft, which will be available by orders placed in Canada for bombers, together with the Australian and New Zealand projects, marks far-reaching and vital developments in the history of Imperial air defence.”