§ Fifth Resolution read a second time.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House doth agree with the Committee in the said Resolution."
§ Mr. E. KELLYThere are a number of questions of policy which occurred to us from time to time as we discussed the previous Votes, but, in accordance with your ruling, as they were then out of order, we have reserved them until the present Vote. I must say that if the Trenchard Memorandum contained half as much information as that which the right hon. Gentleman has given in the course of his speeches this afternoon it would be ten times a more valuable document than it is. There is one point on which I speak with a certain amount of diffidence as an ordinary layman, but anyone occupying a representative capacity cannot escape the demands of his conscience by silence. Firstly, I would point out that there is no naval flying base in Ireland, nor adequate schools there for the training of pilots. I notice in the Trenchard Memorandum, with some surprise, that credit is taken for the establishment of a cadet college in Lincolnshire, because we are told it is an ideal place, with perfect flying surroundings. I put it to the right hon. Gentleman that, in addition to having a cadet college where the flying conditions are perfect, he should also have a cadet college where the conditions arc different, so that the pilots may be trained to meet all sorts of conditions. The Service will suffer owing to these cadet schools being confined to England and the East Coast of Scotland, because the pilots will be turned out with an insufficient acquaintance with the atmospheric conditions in the other parts of these islands. We all know from the barometric chart that the atmospheric conditions vary from place to place, and even from time to time. The right hon. Gentleman pointed out that special attention is being given to the Cairo-Karachi-Bagdad portion of the air route to Australia, and he men- 316 tioned in justification for that that the weather there was always good. I hope, in addition, the Ministry will also recognise that they must also prepare for bad as well as good weather. I think, too, it would be well if the. responsible head of the Ministry gave more attention to the question of the establishment of an air base at Singapore, which would serve the double purpose of assisting the development of civil as well as military aviation. The right hon. Gentleman has been called on to devote more attention to civil aviation, and his answer to that has been that the money is not sufficient, and no doubt if it were he would feel in a position to do more in that direction.
Before the War all our eyes were turned to the North Sea, but we must look further afield in the future for possible enemies, and we must throw our outposts wider. The importance of the North Sea and the East Coast of Scotland and of England has become a thing of the past. Singapore is one of the most important strategical positions in the Eastern world at present. There is another part of the world whose strategic importance seems to have been neglected and that is Ireland. I do not say that because I am an Irishman and represent an Irish Constituency, but really it took the great War to make us realise the importance strategically of Ireland, and here we are at the end of it, and it amazes me that the strategic importance of Ireland has not yet been grasped. Ireland lies right across the greatest trade routes of the world between this country and North and South America. I am surprised and disappointed on looking over the Trenchard Report to find in the list of new works that the importance of Ireland in this respect is not at all recognised. There are two points in Ireland of supreme importance, North and South. They are the nearest points for attack or defence or assistance to any airships or aeroplanes making the great Atlantic crossing. They are the points moreover where the most contrary and least constant atmospheric 317 conditions prevail. For all these reasons we would expect that one of the first stations to be established by the Air Ministry would be a large aeroplane station on the North-West Coast of Ireland and another on the South-West. Instead of that being done, whatever air establishments are there are being gradually withdrawn. The establishment of such stations as I suggest would go far to meet something of the complaints made by those who complain that civil aviation is meeting with insufficient attention. As regards civil aviation generally, it appears to me there is a large field of research which no private commercial company can be expected to engage in and which nevertheless is a very proper function for the Government and very necessary for the head of a competent Air Service. I refer to the complete investigation along the trade routes which would also mean the battle routes, so far as the air is concerned. It is just as important for the Air Minister of the future to provide maps and charts of the air and descriptions of the atmospheric conditions as it was to provide maps of the various countries in the past. The provision of maps of the country and charts of the sea was made by the Army and Navy authorities respectively, and a company establishing a new line of steamships to any part of the world would be admirably provided with surveys and soundings by the Admiralty, which recognised that it was a duty they owed to the nation and to the British Mercantile Marine.
The right hon. Gentleman occupies this unique position: He is now at the head of what is going to become in the next few years the greatest Department in the State, and it is from his brains that the various ideas must come that will regulate the policy and the development of that Department. Moreover, he is the head of a Department which is travelling along an uncharted sea, and where it therefore follows that the personal views and imagination of the Minister will count for everything. Therefore, I appeal to him that one of the most important things for his Department to do to-day is to chart the air just as the land and the sea have already been charted. In comparing the Australian route with the American route, one is struck by the fact that it is only for comparatively short flights that the pilot on the Australian route will be away from land. I speak subject to correction, 318 but I think the longest non-stop flight across the seas is about 450 miles on that route. Unfortunately, no such conditions can be created with regard to Atlantic flights. One would think that the air route to Australia was specially provided by Providence with a number of suitable landing-places which the aviator can visit without being taken very much out of the direct line between London and the various European capitals and the North-East Coast of Australia. Therefore, we find quite naturally that the development of that air route is proceeding apace, and that, although Australia cannot compare in numbers, in wealth', or in industrial importance with the United States, arrangements are much further forward for the purpose of linking it up by aeroplane with the Mother Country than are the arrangements for linking up the Continent of America with these Islands. But it is certain that in the very near future we must do our part towards providing the means which will make it possible to establish a successful aeroplane service between this country and America, and one of the most useful of them will be the systematic and thorough study of the climatic conditions around the whole of the Atlantic Ocean, starting from the Western Coast of Ireland.
Question put, and agreed to.
Remaining Resolutions agreed to.