§ 15. Sir W. Wakefieldasked the Secretary of State for Air if he will discuss with the civil air operators and representatives of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadrons methods whereby co-operation between the Auxiliary squadrons and the civil air operators would enable, at a negligible cost, the flying knowledge, experience and enthusiasm of much needed aircrew, obtained at the cost of many millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, to be retained for use in a national emergency.
Mr. WardI am afraid I cannot justify the additional expenditure which such a scheme would involve in the light of the need for economy and of the various resources already available to supplement Transport Command in emergency.
§ Sir W. WakefieldIs my right hon. Friend aware that his Answer is most unsatisfactory, as until he has had an opportunity of discussing methods it is quite clear that the actual cost cannot be known? If it is only a few hundred pounds, surely it is worth while preserving the experience of trained aircrew on whom many millions of pounds have been spent?
Mr. WardI am not sure whether my hon. Friend is relating all this to the Auxiliary squadrons or not. I do not want to emphasise the practical difficulties in the way of the scheme which he has put forward, because he knows them very well, but the Auxiliary squadrons were an integral part of Fighter Command and, before we decided on their disbandment, we did consider very carefully whether there were alternative schemes in which we could employ them valuably in the face of a nuclear threat. This is one of the things which we went into with great care, but we came to the conclusion that we could not go beyond what we have done.
§ Sir W. WakefieldDoes not that answer show the need for further discussion of this matter?