EMPIRE AIR TRAINING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20570, 2 June 1941, Page 8

EMPIRE AIR TRAINING

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, May 31. The Empire air training scheme, which in the near future will be training pilots at the rate of 20,000 annually and air crews at-the rate of 30,000, is already six months ahead of schedule. The road to the goal, already in sight of overwhelming air strength aimed at by the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, is further shortened by the provision of further training facilities by the United States Government. Commenting on this additional help the Daily Telegraph states: “With good reason the British Ambassador to the United States, Viscount Halifax. yesterday declared that the American Government’s plans for training Royal Air Force pilots and navigators in the United States would be immeasurably helpful. The scheme multiplies beyond calculation the value of the fast-increasing numbers of planes which are being sent to us by America. It makes no humble start with the first contingent of 700 men and it is designed to train 7000 pilots and 1000 navigators a year. The United States .Secretary of War, Mr. H. L. Stimson, lias given a broad hint that an extension of the programme is not beyond the bounds ol' possibility.”