Man of Great vision

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

Man of Great vision

IF you said to the Rt. Hon. Sir Philip Albert Gustave David Sassoon, His Majesty's Under-Secre-ftary of State for Air, "You are one of the men who are making to-mor-tow —in fact your contribution to the future of the British Empire is quite [vitally important." I do not expect that the remark would be very well received. Sir Philip's eyebrows would rise a little; his large, very intelligent eyes jwould look at you a little sadly. He Would say something polite and quite I evasive. But you would gather that he was not amused. Yet your accusation would be quite true. Sir Philip is supremely important to to-morrow —much more important than he seems to some of his colleagues to-day. He is making Britain's future in the air. He knows all about this himself. He knows how important lie is. But he is Dot the sort of man who likes the fact mentioned.

entertaining royalty to shoot in Scotland, canvassing the Parliamentary votes of the very English burgesses of Hythe—they have succeeded tremendously in all they have attempted. Sir Philip has done his own share of adaptation too. From 1915-18 he was private secretary in France to Sir Douglas Haig, having entered the House of Commons in 1912 as member for Hythe, which, by .the way, he has represented continuously ever since. Directly after the war he changed masters—and worked for Sir Eric

/Yesterday First Sir Philip is the third baronet, a Jew, b bachelor and 47 years old. His family fortunes were laid by David Sassoon, a merchant and banker of Bombay, who born,, however, at Bagdad, in 1793. His business spread to London, and is still known as David Sassoon and Co. The eldest son of the old Bagdad merchant became a friend of King Edward, when Prince of Wales, and in 1890 he was created Sir Albert Sassoon, Bart., after his retirement from India where he had been a member of the Bombay Legislative Council. In 1895 Sir Albert was succeeded by Bis son Edward, who married Aline, daughter of Baron Gustave de Rothschild of Paris. Their only son is the present Under-Secretary of State for 'Air. An Adaptable Family These facts of Sassoon family history Way seem to have more concern with yesterday than with to-morrow. But I suggest that if you look at them for a few minutes you will see why Sir Philip is making to-morrow —as well as preserving yesterday as chairman of the board of trustees of the National Gallery and fc trustee of the Wallace Collection and fof the Tate Gallery. The Sassoons have adapted themMves wonderfully to rapidly changing Circumstances—Bagdad, Bombay, Lonbankers* baronets

By WYNDHAM BOYCE

(Copyright Reserved)

Geddes. In 1920 Sir Eric gave him up to Mr. Lloyd George, then Prime Minister, as Parliamentary Private Secretary. In 1924, when Mr. Stanley Baldwin formed his second Government, Sir Philip became Under-Secretary for Air. He has held the post continuously since, except when Labour was in office from 1929-32. He might have " done better for himself " several times since then. He is so rich, so inffuential —and such things count for a lot in politics. Model of Tact and Discretion But no! Sir Philip prefers to stay where he is. Every year he has piloted his Air Estimates through the House of Commons, a model of tact and discretion. He is attacked from all sides, because every party —almost every member of Parliament, has ideas and fancies about flying. Sir Philip is ready for them all, so helpful, so reasonable so dangerous with his charmingly crushing replies. If you could see him on one of his many long flights to the Far East, and the Mediterranean, you would not recognise the same man.

Eager, almost boyish, he is always busy getting to the bottom of each problem and difficulty. The officers of the Royal Air Force with whom he comes in contact unburden their hearts to him. He discovers for himself the real things which the Royal Air Force is up against. Confidences Come His Way There lies the excitement, the opportunities. Always moving about among the personnel of the youngest service, he never invites confidences. They just come his way, because he is one of those born listeners. If you are telling him something you gain the impression that what you have to say is the very thing Sir Philip has been wanting to hear for months. There is nothing posed or forced about all this. It is just a gift of sympathy. At present the expansion of the Royal Air Force occupies a growing proportion of Sir Philip's time. New aerodromes, new machines, new personnel—everything is expanding with a rushing speed. Sir Philip's finger takes the pulse of it all. He is in the enviable position of a man watching his own dreams come true. He had it all planned and worked out, before it • happened, before German aerial rearmament forced the hand of the British Cabinet. The equipment of the expanded Royal Air Force wilt be the best in the world —Sir Philip will see to that.

Of course his work for the Royal Air Force is not so constructive as what Sir Philip does for civil flying. This is where he really is building to-morrow. First-hand Knowledge

'< The offor is a £25,000 premium for the aircraft firm which can turn out, in the next twelve months, the fastest, most efficient and economical medium sized air-liner. . . It may be somo time before regular flights are made to Australia in three days, but it will not bo long before they are done in four days. . . My trip covered more than 19,000 miles over fourteen countries and I was actually 180 hours in the air in seven different types of craft. Throughout, all flights were made to schedule. ..."

That is Sir Philip speaking, just a fragment from many similar speeches. It gives just a glimpse of what he is doing for To-morrow. But there is still another side to Sir Philip's work for British flying. Ho is tremendously active and interested in the pioneer research work which goes on continuously at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, and the Air Ministry establishment at Farnborough. Valuable Research Work At Teddington there are six great wind tunnels where the secrots of Tomorrow's aeroplanes are being evolved. Sir Philip is in constant touch with the work here, and with the scientists who conduct it. In a wind tunnel a model aeroplane is held still while an artificial " wind " of any velocity you like to name rushes past it. Thus ,the conditions of flight can be reproduced, and the stretches jand

Linking the Empire by Air

SIR PHILIP SASSOON PLANS FOR TO-MORROW

strains set up in the model actually measured. Mr. E. F. Relf, superintendent of the Aerodynamics Department, is the real working hero of To-morrow down there. Ho dreams in terms of aeroplanes designed to whizz through the stratosphere at speeds up to 700 miles an hour. Difficulties Not Insurmountable Another high expert of the Air Ministry, Major H. E. Wimperis, looks forward, too, for the day of the 700 miles an hour aeroplane. " The difficulties ore formidable, but they are not insurmountable," he declares very cautiously and expertly. Sir Philip acts as a clearing house; unofficially, as well as officially, keeping in touch with all the new ideas at Teddington, in the offices of the big commercial aviation companies and among the serving officers of the Royal Air Force. He sees that ideas, and the men who hatch them, circulate round the whole British flying world. And men from abroad. It makes no difference what language they talk, so long as they have new ideas to discuss in it. Rich, but Industrious

But, really, the whole thing is absurd. Here you have this very rich bachelor (ho sold 74J acres for £116,000 recently) living in Park Lane and at Belcaire, near Lympne, surrounded by a vast collection of extremely valuable household goods—furniture, silver, carpets, pictures, books and sculpture. Ho has all that the world can give him. He has a tremendous influence and position in

the art world. He could lead a leisured and pleasant lifo. Instead, he works at his selfappointed task of building up Britain's aviation, not sparing himself the smallest trouble, flying across the earth and back again to find out things for himself rather than accept them at second hand.

Ask anybody who, like Sir Philip, is building up Britain's " air-mindedness " and her air-power. It doesn't matter whether your man is connected with civil or military flying, whether he is a pilot or a high mathematician who lives for advanced aorodynamics. One and all will tell you " so long as Sir Philip is at the Air Ministry we can get along with our jobs. Ho

collaborates with all of us. He's the best one you could choose to make Britain get off the earth —into the air." Being a very rich man, who works hard at his job, cannot earn you opinions like that. You must have something more than material advantages and zeal to win the confidence of experts about their own lino of business. Sir Philip possesses that "something" some others haven't got. It is, I suggest, a prophetic vision. He is always looking ahead. He can see " regular air passenger and mail services between all important cities in Great Britain. . . the Air Ministry is going drastically to curtail present flying time? between London and other Empire capitals. . . We are acting in time, in expanding

the Royal Air Force, but we hare no time to waste. . . flight-can give the British Empire a cohesion and permanency which earlier empires lacked . . « air power is more important to us, scattered as we are, than to any other nation in the world." It is Sir Philip speaking again. His voice falls in the phrases and cadences of an experienced Parliamentarian. As he speaks we can catch behind his words the echo of an eager, burning spirit, aglow with ambition to place British flying indisputably first in a world which is making huge advances in aviation. This is the real Philip Sa'ssoon. This is why I place the chairman of the Trustees of the National Gallery among the few men who are really hammering oufc the shape of the Britain of to-morrow.