ROYAL AIR FORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20766, 8 January 1931, Page 10

ROYAL AIR FORCE.

RUSH OF CANDIDATES.

FEW OPENINGS AVAILABLE.

• A warning to young, men who leave New Zealand with the idea of joining the Royal Air Force in England is given by a correspondent. He points out the possibility of disappointment and the consequent waste of time and money. Candidates for the Royal Air Force who go-Home to England with no local recommendation have first of all to go before the selection committee in London, and if passed may then have to wait a month or two before undergoing a medical examination. A correspondent draws attention to the fact that the local medical examination is not nearly. exhaustive enough to satisfy the authorities in England, and men passed here as quite fit may easily bo rejected in England because of some slight physical defect. When a candidate has successfully passed the selection and medical boards he may have to wait for any period up to nine months before being sent to a flying school, and during that time he will have to support himself. There is also tho possibility of a candidate failing to tpialTfy in his preliminary flying tests at tho school of instruction. Even when a candidate has a recommendation from the Governor-General and tho Director of Air Services he is not certain of acceptance.

Mr. G. W. M. Easton, of Taranaki, who was invalided to Now Zealand after 18 months' service in the Royal Air Force, said, on his arrival hore last month: —"The prospects for New Zealanders wishing to obtain Air Force commissions are not very good at present. The Air Ministry has been rushed with applications, and there is a long waiting list. The standard of physical fitness has been raised, and it is little use for anyone to go to England on chance, as many did a few yeurs ago."