AIR FORCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1940, Page 9

AIR FORCE

DEBATE ON THE BRITISH ESTIMATES

CO-OPERATION WITH NAVY.

SOME CRITICISM IN PRESS

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, March 8.

Tn the later stages of the Mouse of Commons debate on the Air Estimates, which were adopted without a vole, Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Roger Keyes, appealed for more effective co-operation between Iho R.A.F. and the Navy for the protection of fishing vessels and other North Sea shipping, and asked for Hie Coastal Command to be placed under lite complete control of the. Admiraltv.

The Air Minister. Sir Kingsley Wood, in replying, said he believed the dual control arrangement of the Coastal Command between the Admiralty and the R.A.F. was the best in the present circumstances, but wherever possible the Government intended to improve the system.

Contributing to the widespread Press comment on the debate, “The Times” says that the capacity of the R.A.F. to meet all possible calls for machines, men or for both will not be assured till the training organisation is in full operation, both in this country and Canada. “The Canadian scheme,” it says, “is on a really large scale, and will ultimately produce 20.000 pilots and 30,000 air crews yearly, but only a small proportion of this total will be men from the United Kingdom. “The announcement therefore made yesterday that a number of training schools will be established in France must be considered one of the most valuable made during the debate. “It must be added that no training is complete without operational flying. That is the final justification, if one were needed, for the repeated reconnaissance flights over enemy territory carried out in the worst of weather and with uninterrupted success. Broadly speaking, the R.A.F. has not yet got beyond the stage of preparation and skirmishing, and in the matter of preparation there are no standards by which the achievements can be judged, for every part of the task is very diiferent from that of 1914-18. “But the debate certainly left an impression that its successes in skirmishing are no accident, and that both in numbers and quality it will prove superior to the enemy, who, because he was deliberately preparing for the war, had a very long start.” POSITION OF THE ALLIES. In the comment in the British newspapers (says the Press Association) satisfaction is expressed for the most part, and it is pointed out that the Minister’s statement that the Allies are now producing more and better planes than Germany is of the utmost importance. The “Daily Telegraph" says that it must augur for growing and decisive preponderance as time passes. Sir Kingsley Wood’s statement was not accepted entirely without criticism. “The Times” says that there are likely to be more than defensive calls on the Royal Air Force before the war ends, and that one such call has already come from Finland. It is hard to believe that more could not be spared for Finland without endangering the success of our war effort elsewhere.

The “Daily Mirror” remarks that Sir Kingsley Wood has not completely satised all critics on the question of cooperation! between the navy and the air force and recalls Sir Roger Keyes’s suggestion that aircraft working with and against ships should be under the sole control of the Admiralty. The “Manchester Guardian” repeats the claim that time must be on our side in the expansion of the air force. It points out, however, that we have no evidence that the sought-for goal, mastery in the air. is reached. The “Guardian” says that civil aviation is entitled to consideration not only after but during the war. and the “Daily Mail" says: "We do not share the Minister's view that civil aviation should be retarded because of the war. This is not the German opinion; neither should it be ours.”

The “Daily Mail” is most frankly critical and asks questions which it would like answered. These are: (1) Why do our planes fly over German naval bases without attacking them? and (2) is the air force thoroughly prepared to resist the expected spring attack?

The “Daily Express” says that the British people will be satisfied only with mastery of the air as complete as our mastery of the seas.