§ Sir F. WISEasked the Secretary of State for Air the numbers and the cost of the Air Force and the numbers in Egypt in 1014 and in 1925, respectively?
§ Sir S. HOAREThe strength of the Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps (the Royal Air Force was not, of course, created until 1918) at the outbreak of war in 1914 was 197 officers and 1,647 other ranks; there were then no air forces in Egypt. The strength of the Royal Air Force on 1st December, 1925, was 3,382 officers, 103 cadets and 30,566 airmen. The average strength in Egypt during 1925 has been 272 officers and 1,820 airmen. The combined cost of the Royal 1451W Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps in 1913–14 was stated by the Financial Secretary of the Treasury, in a reply given on the 29th April last, to be £1,375,700, of which amount £605,700 was charged to Navy Votes and £770,000 to Army Votes. The gross total of Air Estimates for 1925–26 is £21,319,300. The figure given for 1913–14 is the only one available, but is not, of couruse, in any way comparable with that for 1925–26, as quite apart from expenditure on civil aviation and the Meteorological Office, Air Estimates to-day include provision for numerous services which in 1913–14 were not regarded as air expenditure, but as falling naturally under the ordinary heads of Navy and Army Votes.