BRITISH AIR FORCE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 109, 9 May 1924, Page 7

BRITISH AIR FORCE

CONTROL OF NAVAL

SECTION

END OF DISPUTE IN SIGHT

REPORT TO THE NAVY LEAGUE.

fUSITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.)

(SYDNEY SDN CABLE.) (Received 9th May, 10 a.m.)

LONDON, Bth May.

Viscount Chelmsford, in a letter read at the annual meeting of the Navy League, announced that the Admiralty and the Air Ministry will shortly terminate the dispute regarding the control of the naval air ' force by mutual agreement. It is understood that 70 per cent, of Air Force officers .will be naval officers. THe league regards the move as in the right direction, but adopted a resolution that tho control of the Fleet's air arm shouid be in the hands of tho Admiralty. It also expressed profound regret at tho Government's decision against the Singapore Base, as against the advice of naval experts and as likely to imperil the security of. the Empire. o • ■'

There has been much discussion in Britain of a proposal to.allot a certain number of airmen for naval service and place them under the. direct control of the Admiralty. The proposal has been vigorously opposed by the Royal Air Force, which has desired to maintain control of the aerial, fighting service, whether on land or sea. Italy is the only country besides Britain which has maintained an Air Force as an organisation distinct from the army and navy. In August, 1923, the Government adopted a report of a special sub-com-mittee, of ■ which '. some of the 'clauses were: 1, that group captains in the air units in contact with- the navy should be officers with experience of tho Fleet air arm; 4, that the cost of the Fleet air arm should be included in the Navy Estimates; 5. that members of the Air Force when on board ship should have the position :of •■marines; ,7> that it should definitely bo laid down^that men and machines of the Fleet air arm should not be withdrawn without consent of the AdmiraKy or order of the Cabinet; 9, that naval officers should be appointed to the Air Staff and air.officers to the Naval Wa?- Staff; 10, that no naval officers thus appointed should be asked to perform non-naval air duties; 11, that naval flying men should be distinguished from-Air Force flying men by a badge or mark; 12, that the Admiralty should determine what the proportion of naval officers temporarily appointed to the Air Force should be; 13, that fleet ■'reconnaissance as well ■as spotting should be entrusted to naval officers. -■ ' : :

The statement of1 Viscount Chelmsford has reference to the"twelfth clause. But the report, according to the "Daily Mail" Year Book, was not at all satisfactory to naval' quarters, and the recommendations were regarded as risking the efficiency of the Fleet. The writer' of' the article said: " ' 'The Admiralty and the Naval War' Staff have never, wavered^ in their firm conviction that, so long'as the aircraft employed for naval purposes are not under the Navy and an integral' part of it, so long the Fleet will bo .blinded at sea and will be unable to do its work."-