CANADIAN AIRMEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1940, Page 6

CANADIAN AIRMEN

UNIT READY FOR SERVICE OVERSEAS COUNTRY’S GREAT AVIATION RESOURCES. ALT., MINERALS REQUIRED AVAILABLE. Bj’ Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, January 30. A report from Ottawa states that the Prime Minister. Mr Mackenzie King, reviewing the first complete Canadian Air Force unit prepared for service overseas, which is sailing soon, said: “You will be fighting to preserve the things we value most in life —freedom and liberty of thought, deed and word and all the cherished ideals we hold as dear as life itself. May God bless you and keep you, one and all.”

The fact that Canada, which is the leading nation of the world in the carriage by air of freight and mails, can produce every mineral required in aviation is one of the many good reasons for the position given to that Dominion in the Empire air training scheme. It is indeed the contribution of her mines to her national wealth that enables Canada to shoulder some 60 per cent of the total £120.000,000 scheme.

Radium for magnetic needles, molybdenite for hardening steel, coal for generation of the necessary power, aluminium for frames —all these are readily obtainable in Canada. The radium production, which was 3000 milligrammes in 1933, rose by 1939 to 70,000 and has further increased. Other Canadian metals largely used in the manufacture of ammunition include antimony for shrapnel. gold.-copper and zinc for casings of all kinds, nickel for steel, cadmium in place of tin. and crude oil and sulphur. EMPIRE SCHEME AMERICANS AS INSTRUCTORS. NEW YORK. January 31. Canada has opened headquarters in a local hotel to enlist experienced American fliers to act as instructors in an effort to hasten Hie Dominion air scheme. It is understood that an initial group of 35 is sought. They will be well paid and given free transportation to the air schools and will probably start work in three weeks' time. It is reported that unmarried Great War fliers are preferred.