TECHNICAL AND WARLIKE STORES. (Hansard, 21 April 1921)

§ Captain W. BENN

There is one small point that is appropriate to this Vote. It raises a practical question, and I hope it may have the consideration of the right hon. Gentleman and the Air Council. In my opinion, the Vote ought 2178 to include a Vote for camouflage. Camouflage is essentially a service which should be directed by the Royal Air Force. Camouflage is protection against observation. Sometimes, it is true, it is observation from ground observers, but nearly always it is observation from the air. How can it be possible for Royal Engineers, or whoever do it, to make an effective camouflage scheme unless they are in the air to observe its effect and its effectiveness? If they are in the air, why should it not be done by people whose proper habitat is the air? This is a very interesting topic because there is not only the negative side of camouflage, but, especially in countries like Egypt where there is bright sunshine and a uniform ground surface of sand, there is a positive side to camouflage. It is a fertile source of deceit for the enemy forces. Everything is judged, whether by the eye or by the camera, by shadows. The actual substance of the article plays a very unimportant part and shadows can easily be introduced with very slight material. It is much too technical and I do not know enough about it to raise it here, but it seems to me that it is essentially an Air Force service. It may have been in the old days, when there was no flying, quite right to give it to some other ground army, but now when all effective reconnaissance at a distance is done in the air, it should be given over to the Air Force as their Department.