§ 55. Sir H. BRITTAINasked the Secretary of State for Air what point has now been reached by the Royal Air Force squadron of flying boats on their way to Australia; whether schedule time is being kept; and when the squadron is expected to have made the circuit of Australia and returned to its base at Singapore?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for AIR (Sir Philip Sassoon)The answer to the first part of the question is that the Flight reached Singapore on 28th February, thus completing over 11,000 miles of its total cruise of 28,000 miles. As regards the second, schedule time is being kept, subject only to the voluntary modification that the Flight waited for a day at Port Swettenham, at the request of the Governor of the Straits Settlements, in order to take the Governor and his staff to Singapore. As regards the last part, it is expected that the Flight will have completed the circuit of Australia and have returned to Singapore by the middle of next September, after which it will proceed to Hong Kong and return to Singapore in January.