CIVIL AVIATION AFTER THE WAR

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23964, 3 June 1943, Page 5

CIVIL AVIATION AFTER THE WAR

DEBATE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS GOVERNMENT’S POLICY STATED (N.Z.P.A.—8.0.W.) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON. June I. “The Empire is profoundly alarmed about the position of British' civil aviation and its future prospects,” said Mr W. R. D. Perkins (Conservative), opening a debate in the House of Commons on civil aviation. Calling for an immediate Empire conference on the question, he said it was generally accepted that the nation best prepared after the war to enter the world of air commerce on a really large scale would be the first to recover economic stability. The aircraft industry was now the biggest in Britain, and if steps were not taken now there would, after the war, be whole areas in distress. Britain would be faced with hordes of unemployed, all concentrated in • certain selected area. He suggested that one Minister of Cabinet rank should have sole charge of civil aviation, with a permanent Under-Secretary of State as his righthand man. At present four Ministers were directly responsible for British civil aviation, and they were giving a fine exhibition of the “old English game of passing the buck.” No Minister dared to take responsibility. Civil aviation should be taken from the Air Ministry. Air marshals were trained to fight; bomb, kill, and destroy. The were not trained to create and improve. Their outlook was purely military. A result was that the Civil Aviation Department was being held back. It lacked drive and vision. Mr Perkins also urged the immediate strengthening of the board of British Overseas Airways with keen young men who lived for flying and had no conflicting interests or divided loyalties. “We do not want any more city directors.” he added. “The board is overladen with them. We do not want any more discarded Cabinet members or convalescing air marshals. If yoting men are not available in Britain, why not go out into the Empire and se« if they cannot be found*ther£?” The Deputy-Prime Minister (Mr C. R. Attlee) said that the suggestion that Britain could turn from war production to civil aviation was unwarrantable. While the Government was prepared for the utmost co-opera-tion, it was natural that the first approach should be made to members of the British Commonwealth. The Government was consulting 'the Dominions with a view to arriving, as soon as possible, at an agreement oh the procedure in future and a common policy. Consultations had also begun with the principal aeroplane constructors to see what could be done without conflicting in .any way with war production, and it had been possible to allocate a staff to design four types of aeroplanes. Arrangements were also in hand for the adaptation of existing *' types of aircraft to civil purposes, In addition, much of the work done through the Empire for military purposes would remain a solid civil asset. Air Secretary’s Reply The Secretary of State for Air (Sir Archibald Sinclair), replying to the debate, said that the first consideration in the Government’s policy was to arrive at a common policy with the Dominions. The Government whs now striving to arrive at that policy. It had taken the initiative, and it Was calling the Dominions into consultation. On the question of the separation of the administration of civil aviation from the Air Ministry, Sir Archibald Sinclair said that ’ civil aviation did not now come under the Air Council, but was under the control of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary and himself, ■ of Civil -Aviation, and the Permanent Under-Secretary. It had -been - removed from the con- • trol of the- Air Council before the war. During the war a connexion between civil air transport end the Air Ministry must be maintained in the interests of the war. After hostilities had ceased in Europe there would be the task of feeding Europe, transporting prisoners, and innumerable other tasks of the utmost urgency, and it would be imprudent to contemplate any immediate change after the war. Speaking of peace time, the Minister said that the Air Ministry was a repository of flying zeal and experience, and people in the Ministry were determined to develop flying to the utmost. If they had a 1 separate civil aviation Ministry, he doubted whether they would find the same zeal for flying as in the Air Ministry.

HONOURS LIST

BARONY TO SIR HUGH DOWDING LONDON. June 1. One of the men who is described a* having been behind the winning of the Battle of Britain, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, then Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Fighter Command, heads the King's Birthday honours list, announced to-night. He has been created a baron, the only one in this year’s lists. Sir Hugh Dowding was in charge of Britain’s Fighter Commend from 1936 until December, 1940, when hf went to the United States as the representative of the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Mr Roy Chadwick, designer of the Lancaster bomber, and Mr R. K. Pearson, chief designer for the Vickers Armstrong Company, are created Commanders of the Order of the British Empire. The British Tobacco Controller (Mr A. A. Maxwell) has beerv knighted, and the chairman of the Oil Fuel Cohtrol Board (Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, M.P.), has been made a Privy Councillor. A Canadian supplement to the lists contains awards to 70 members of the Canadian forces overseas. A former second in command of the Salvation Army in New Zealand, Commissioner Albert Orsborn, becomes a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He is at present head of the Salvation Army’s evangelical operations, embracing 1600 corps throughout the British Isles. He is one of the Salvation Army’s greatest song writer?.

LIST FOR FIJI

(Rec. 7 p.m.) • SUVA, June 9. In the King’s Birthday honours list Mr Samuel Howard Ellis, M.8.E., is created a Knight Bachelor. ISir Samuel Ellis was born at Waipu and was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University College. He graduated Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws in 1912. He was called to the Fiji Bar in 1912, and after serving in the Northumberland Fusiliers and the Royal Air Force from 1915 to 1919 resumed practice in Fiji. He is a member of the Executive Council of Fiji.] Mrs Emily Sprott, of the Melanesian Mission in the Solomon Islands, is created a Member of the Order of the British Empire: and the British Empire Medal is awarded to Mr G. H. Kuper, a native doctor in the Solomons, and to Mr I. R. Land. Superintendent of Telegraphs and Telephones, Tonga. FRENCH SQUADRON AT ALEXANDRIA LONDON, June 1. The French naval squadron at Alexandria went over to General Giraud on May 7. as soon as Tunis fell. The Algiers radio stated that the Secretary of Information in the Giraud Administration revealed this to-day, and added that the news had been kept sqcret fot obvious important military reasons,