NEW ZEALANDER’S PROPOSAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23527, 16 June 1938, Page 12

NEW ZEALANDER’S PROPOSAL

COMMITTEE OF SUPPLY MR W. MACHINES SUGGESTION (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) , LONDON, May 21. The proposal that a Committee of Supply should take charge of the R.A.F. expansion scheme in England has prompted Mr W. Machin (Christchurch), oast president of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand, to write to the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, “ as a country cousin from New Zealand, suggesting that a fully experienced commercial man be put in charge of such a committee. ... , "Let the Air Ministry decide the tvpes and quantities of planes the Government requires, and the military men be left to use the planes after they have been supplied.” he says. 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 way—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 food. The military and professional minds work differently, and they do not normally fit into business. “ I recently flew from Melbourne to Southampton. There were three sets of controlling authorities running the planes, without any commercial coordinating mind. The result was that the passengers suffered, although all concerned were most anxious to serve them well.”