SUPPLY COMMITTEE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23068, 20 June 1938, Page 8

SUPPLY COMMITTEE

ROYAL AIR FORCE NEW ZEALANDER'S SCHEME [FROM OTJR OWN COHRESPONpm] LONDON, Mvr 28 The proposal that a Committee of Supply should take charge of the Royal Air Force expansion scheme in England has prompted Mr. W. Machin, of Christchurch, New Zealand, past president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, to write to the Daily Telegraph, "as a country cousin from New Zealand," suggesting that a fully experienced commercial man be put in charge of 6uch a committee. " Let the Air Ministry decide the types and quantities of aeroplanes the Government requires, and the military men be left to use the machines after they have been supplied," says Mr. Machin. " During the war, as a minor officer of the Wool and Meat Department, I saw enough of the difficulty of coordinating the military mind with the commercial and technical minds—all three classes of mind good in their own wajr—to know that they do not easily interlock and that all sorts of human susceptibilities arise and interfere with the efficient promotion of the job. It is largely because of the very different education and training of these various classes of mind. " The commercial mind which is well trained will deliver the goods. Tho military and professional minds work differently, and they dp not normally fit into business. §, " Recently I flew fronfc Melbourne to Southampton. There sets of controlling authorities funning th* aeroplanes without any commercial coordinating mind. The result was that the passengers suffered, although all concerned were most anxious to serve them well." ,