MORE COMMISSIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1942, Page 4

MORE COMMISSIONS

FOR MEMBERS OF AIR CREWS ACTION BY NEW ZEALAND & AUSTRALIA. LEAD GIVEN BY CANADA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.0 p.m.) LONDON. October 13. The status of New Zealand and Australian air crew members is likely to be improved as a result of a forthcoming London conference between representatives of those two air forces and the R.A.F., says the Associated Press. Canada, the fourth partner in the Empire Air Scheme, has already departed from the original policy whereby commissions were granted to air crew personnel on a fixed percentage of pilots, observers and others. A Canadian Air Force spokesman said Canada for some time has been pursuing a more aggressive commissioning policy for all air crew members than the R.A.F. or any other Dominion. “Canadian policy,” he said, “is that all air crew personnel shall be commissioned if of commissionable quality. They have the right to apply for commissions through their commanding officer, without necessarily awaiting his recommendation.”

The abolition of commissioning on a percentage basis would remove the most serious obstacle in the way of more commissions for New Zealand and Australian air crews who have earned a status equivalent to their American .and Canadian comrades.