AIR ESTIMATES, 1920–21. (Hansard, 23 March 1920)

Lieut.-Colonel MALONE
I should like to ask the Secretary of War, or the Air Minister, a question with regard to the collapse of one of the greatest Air Companies in Great Britain; I mean the Airco Company. I understand that the chairman of the company has resigned through lack of support, and has disposed of his company to the Birmingham Small Arms Company, who will utilise the workshops and machinery for other purposes. I need not point out what a very serious state of affairs this will bring upon the aircraft industry in this country. He realises, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for War realises, how much we are indebted to Mr. Holt Thomas, the managing director of this company, for the part he has taken in building up, not only the Aircraft Manufacturing Company, but British aviation in general. It was largely due to the personal energy and initiative of Mr. Holt Thomas that aviation was started in this country. The efforts devoted to aviation by Mr. Holt Thomas some eight or ten years ago will be remembered when the War Office and the Admiralty adopted such an apathetic attitude towards the air. I rise merely to ask the hon. Gentleman whether he can give us any indication as to the policy of the Air Ministry towards this question. May I hope that some steps are being taken to prevent the collapse of one of the greatest firms this country has ever seen?

§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for AIR (Major Tryon)
I am very much obliged to my hon. and gallant Friend for raising this question. We fully realise its importance. The Advisory Committee, which is a very strong Committee, is going into the question of civil aviation. It sat to-day, and it is going to sit again on Frday, and we hope that in a very few days we shall be in possession of its Report. We hope, when we get the Report, to consider at once what the Committee recommend, and we intend to lay before this House, I hope within a month, a full statement of the action which the Government propose, As that action necessarily has to be decided upon after 334 the Report comes, and as it will then have to come before the House of Commons for discussion, I do not think it is very desirable at the present moment to go at length into proposals which are not yet formulated. This Committee is engaged in very important work, and, as they are men of great distinction in connection with aviation, I think it is only fair to them to say that, when the Secretary of State for Air the other day stated that civil aviation must fly by itself, he referred to the ultimate way in which it should be sustained. He did not mean to bar any Government action that may be found necessary in order to keep civil aviation going during the present very difficult year which follows the end of the War, and before the whole thing can be built up again. Therefore, his statement refers to the buoyant and active way in which civil aviation should, as he said, fly by itself later on, on a sound commercial basis. It in no way bars financial or any steps from being fairly considered when the Committee recommends them in the course of the next few days.

§ Mr. JODRELL
I hope I am in order in drawing attention to a matter connected with the aerodromes in the Eastern counties. The hon. Gentleman is probably aware that there are three large aerodromes—

§ Mr. SPEAKER
That discussion will come on the fifth Vote: "Works, Buildings, Repairs and Lands."

§ Mr. JODRELL
It happens that, in the constituency which I have the honour to represent, there are three large aerodromes. Two of these have been or are about to be abolished, and the material is being got rid of, but there still exists a large and very important aerodrome known as the Bircham Newton Aerodrome. That aerodrome, it is true, was built, as the most recent of these aerodromes, at a time of great pressure in the War, and, therefore, every allowance can be made for the hurried manner in which many of its buildings have been erected; but the material of which the quarters of both 335 officers and men are constructed needs very earnest attention on the part of my hon. and gallant Friend. The bricks of which they are built are the 4½-inch brick, and they are covered on either side with a kind of cement, which was put on in such thin quantity and quality that, in heavy rain, the weather drove clean through the walls. The House, perhaps, is not aware of the extremely exposed condition of some of these aerodromes. This particular one is situated on very high ground in the county of Norfolk, within 5 miles of the sea, in a climate and on a soil which has singular qualities for absorbing damp. The houses and cottages which comprise most of the villages in the neighbourhood are built with very thick walls, and with every kind of contrivance to keep out the damp that comes in in the winter, including, very often, the planting of trees close to the north side of the house. All this is entirely out of the question in an aerodrome. The wood which occupied the site of the Bircham Newton Aerodrome had, of course, to be entirely taken away, and the buildings, as I have said, were erected very hurriedly.
In October last there came a spell of cold weather, such as is very unusual even in those parts of Norfolk, and it may be within the memory of hon. Members of this House that there was snow and a driving storm of unusual severity. Not only did the water come through the walls of the aerodrome, but there was immediately an epidemic, from which both officers and men suffered severely. There were upwards of a score of cases of pneumonia. The local people did their utmost to find accommodation elsewhere for the officers and men, some of whom had come from very warm climates in the East. The very stars in their courses seem to have fought in favour of the Air Ministry during this winter, for we have had the mildest winter ever known. Had it not been for that, I would venture the suggestion that it would have been difficult to keep that Air Force together at all in those buildings. I desire, therefore, once more to draw the attention of the hon. and gallant Member to this matter. I drew the attention of the Government to it through his predecessor, and the right hon. Gentleman had the matter in hand just at the time when he resigned his office, I feel sure that, before this summer is over, 336 steps will be taken to obviate the discomfort and danger which both officers and men would have to suffer should they have to spend another winter in buildings such as this.

§ Major TRYON
I am very much obliged to my hon. Friend for bringing this forward. The position illustrates the difficulty, which is not confined to the case of which he speaks. In order to provide shelter during the War, buildings of a temporary kind were run up in those often bleak and uninhabited districts to which the Air Force had to go in order to find suitable ground. We are doing all we can to improve those buildings during the coming winter. I have myself been down to see them, and fully realise how important it is, and I sincerely hope that before next winter we shall be able to improve matters. It must, however, be remembered that this was done during the War, when it was not possible to provid permanent buildings of a substantial character for all those people who were hurriedly brought together for training in these places. It is, therefore, a survival of War conditions. I hope we shall be able to get on, and that before very long they will be a thing of the past.