PRIDE IN R.N.Z.A.F.

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23289, 27 August 1945, Page 4

PRIDE IN R.N.Z.A.F.

Splendid Organisation (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON. Aug. 26. In an interview to-day. Air Marshal the Hon Sir Ralph Cochrane. K. 8.. C. 8.. A.F.C.. Air Officer Commanding. RA.F. Transport Command, who was New Zealand's first Chief of the Air Staff, and who has occupied his present position since early this year, expressed pride at having been associated with the R.N.Z.A.F.. which had developed into such a splendid organisation. Sneaking of the many New Zealanders ’in Transport Command, he said they made excellent pilots and possessed those qualities of which New Zealand was justlv proud. - Team work bad been a feature both of the :-:utial development of the R.N.Z.A.F. and in its actual part in the war. Sir Ralph Cochrane said he was not in a position to comment on various aspects of post-war civil aviation, which'was Largely a matter of policy, and had been complicated by the sudden' ending of the war. Asked what he considered the mam essential in a transport pilot he said he thought a ■mod sense of responsibilitv. based on the fundamentals of phvsical fitness nid mental alertness, was most imn.ittan’ and that was a quality posI -c >0(1 in a marked decree by New i Sir Ralnh Cochrane gave an emphatic ■to a statement attributed to him i sonic time aeo on the question of the I future of Rongotai airport “I have expressed no opinion of anv sort about t’.ongotai since' I sat as a member of i the Commission appointed by the i Government to consider the future of the airiwiit.” he said, “nor have Lever I given anv indication of the nature of I the Commission's report.'' I Sir Ralph Cochrane, who has been ’naking a routine tour of Transport Command formations in the Middle East. India. Burma and Australia, will Icav to-morrow ait-’innon for Aus[iiaha and tlie United Kingdom