THE NEW AIR MINISTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16673, 18 October 1917, Page 4

THE NEW AIR MINISTRY.

The air service has suffered many | handicaps because of its novelty. Not | the least of these have been depart- ! mental. The skill and numbers of, the airmen grew more rapidly than ! the administrative machinery which : directed their activities. At the out- J break of the war the service was j arbitrarily divided between the army i and the navy, and there was sometimes lack of understanding between i the directors of the two branches. I As time went on an attempt was I made to co-ordinate the naval and i military branches by new bodies, i the latest being an Air Board, on j which sat the directors of the naval j and army air services, the controller of aeronautical supplies, and other j experts and civilian members. It was natural that this board should gradually evolve into a special department, with a separate Ministry, a change which is now announced. I The increasing growth of the air service made such a development inevitable, but it has probably been hastened by the German air raids on London. These raised intricate questions of policy and military expediency, and created a special need for a department which could weigh all the considerations and shape sound policy and practice. The co-ordination of the services and the creation of a special department to foster them may fairly be expected to make for greater efficiency and more vigorous prosecution of the aerial war.