SINGAPORE AIR FORCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23026, 2 May 1938, Page 10

SINGAPORE AIR FORCE

FUTURE MANOEUVRES CO-OPERATION BENEFITS HINT TO AUSTRALIA SINGAPOEE, April 16 There is very good authority for stating that the Far East command of the Royal Air Force is anxious that one or more squadrons of the Australian Air Force should be sent to co-operate in all large-scale manoeuvres held at Singapore. This form of co-operation should be strengthened, it is coilsidered here, by the exchange of individual officers between the two forces. The present system of sending Australian Air Force officers almost solely to England for oversea experience fails to meet the present' situation. The exchange of squadrons between Singapore and Australia for longer periods than are needed for co-opera-tion in large-scale exercises—say six months or a year —is not favoured. It is felt that more is to be gained by giving Australian officers and senior non-commissioned officers experience as members of a British unit at Singapore, and vice versa, than by transferring squadrons from Australia to Singapore or from Singapore to Australia for relatively long periods of routine work,'

Such transferred units are likely to be too self-contained to get the most out of the exchange. Only in a grave emergency might it be necessary for the Etching of squadrons between Australia and Singapore to take place, and the large-scale exercises, which are tb becomfe a regular feature of Singapore's life, represent the nearest approach to emergency conditions that can be made in times of peace.