SHARP EYES OF THE FLEET
NAVY SHOULD CONTROL ITS OWN AIR ARM
By Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes
THE
HONGKONG
TELEGRAPH. FRIDAY, MAY 24, 1935.
After a few years, in response to the urgent demands of the Admiralty, the Government ap- pointed a Committee to Inquire in- to the relations between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry. The Committee recommended that the Navy should be allowed ta kup. ly 70 per cent of the pilots and all the observers of the Fleet Air Arm, but in an effort to please both sides it satindled neither.
It left the Fleet Air Arm under in system of dun control, which only operated thanks to the good |comradeship of the officers and men of the two Services, but is full of anomalies und does not nuke
UNDER the Treaty of Versailles Germany was allowed for efficiency".
to replace her old battleships by vessels not éxceed- ing 10,000 tons, mounting guns not exceeding 11in.
With considerable ingenuity, she designed the "pocket battleships," possessing sufficient speed to escape from any battleship, and carrying 11in. guns capable of destroying any cruiser which came within range.
rity. The Air Ministry is thus We faced with a tremendous task. sailors feel very strongly that the moment has arrived when the Navy should he freed from the dual con- trof, which has so greatly hampered the development of the Navy's Air Arm ever since the war,
The Admiralty had insisted thul every penny spent on the Naval
appear
the
Air Arm should Naval Estimates, and it Was thought
Blunt its Increase
development would be the Admir alty's concern. For instance, if} the Admiralty were prepared to a cruiser or destroyer surrender flotilla for an aircraft carrier and
they would be free to do so.
In answer to this challenge, France is building two 25,000-ton battle cruisers, which will be capable of over-so many squadrons of aeroplanes, taking and destroying the "pocket battleships" and any cruiser in the world, and also two 35,000-ton battleships to meet those which Italy is building.
Thus naval construction has started in Europe, and we cannot ignore it. The Mediterranean and Suez Canal are vital links la the chain of our Imperial communten tions. It is fally to be blind to the fact that if people of one race do not hesitate to fight amongst them. selves as they have been doing recently in Spain, Austria and Greece-nations with conflicting interests may well fight for the things they want, if they think they can do so with impunity. It is suicidal to lay ourselves open to possible attacks by neglecting our own, defences.
However, as a safeguard it was valueless, and there is a strong ease for a thorough Inquiry Into) the present unsatisfactory state of i affairs. As recently as Nov. 28, 1934, Mr. Baldwin declared in thei House of Commons that the Fleet Air Arm was an integral part of the Royal Air Force, and the Ad- miralty's efforts to expand the Fleet Air Arm have frequently Before it was amalgamated with been blocked by the Air Ministry. The American Army and Navy the Royal Flying Corps
had to face exactly the same kind Royal Air Force, there more efficient, up-to-date, or better of Press and political propaganda equipped air unit than the Royal which brought about the amalgama- It had the very tion, but they were able to resist Naval Air Service. latest and beat machines, and hail it. with the result that the Ameri-
the Handley-Page night bom-can Services are infinitely In hers and Naval flying boats by far air-minded and far better equipped the largest and most powerful air than are nurs. craft in existence at that time.
POST-WAR DECLINE
thri 11
Was 10
Clause of the Government's "Statement Relating to Defence" deals with the necessity for pro- viding adequate defences for the
It possessed kite balloons, dirigi- bases and fuelling stations of the floot and for mercantile harbours, bles large and small; the Admiralty It explains that in the Army had built an airship, which was Estimates the increase shown is the first aircraft in the world to due to the provision for improved make a successful passage across const and anti-aircraft defences, the Atlantic to America and bark. up-to-date equipment, transport mention these nets to show that i and war reserves of all kinds, the Navy was thoroughly capable which have fallen far below re-of looking after its own air ser-
vice. quired standards.
more
I have recently been in Americ Land I have no hesitation in stating
that the American Navy is at least.
in 100 per cent. ahead of ours these respects, having been free ti develop its while those of our Navy have been wings unhampered, pinioned by an intolerable system or dual control.
OBSOLETE SHIPS
1 cannot give a better example of the handicap under which the
The importance of the defence It is quite true that the Royal Navy has suffered than the fact of Singapore, for which provision Flying Corps and the Royal Naval that the Air Ministry declined to allow Navid pelty-officers to qualify is made, cannot be exaggerated. Air Service were in eompetition Without a secure use there we for machines and material, but this pilots in the Fleet Air Arm could not send a fleet east of Suez, could easily have been adjusted by although large numbers of non- commissioned officer pilots are This is so fully recognised by our machinery similar to that which employed in the Royal Air Force. Dominions and Crown Colonies existed for the production of naval This is an intolerable interference that Australia, New Zealand, the and military ordnance.
in the domestic affairs of a Ser- Straits Settlements and Hongkong
However, the Government of the vice which proved its capacity to have all subscribed generously today decided to amalgamate the two build up a splendid air service be- Its construction.
Services, and formed the Regni Air fore 1918, and now should be left ¦ Force in 1918.
free to develop its own Air Service to most increasing requirements.
dom, and
AIR FORCE'S BIG TASK
The Navy was deprived of some of its excellent squadrons, but The Air Ministry will have plenty Clause 6 lays down that the generally speaking the amalgamato do in organising the consider principal role of the Royal Airtion did not seriously affect the able augmentation they need for Force is to provide (with the co- operation of ground defences for cliciency of the Navl air service, their own affairs. It would seent Its squadrons remained andera good opportunity to relieve them the protection of the United King naval control for operations until of their share of responsibility particularly London. hostilities censed. But after the for the maintenance of the Fleet against air attack. It also pre-war friction was inevitable, and the Air Arm. vides uir forces for general defence Navy watched the efficiency of its "Although the Naval Estimates i purposes in the Middle East, India and the Far East, as well as for co-operation in coast defence; and in addition, it furnishes specially trained and equipped squadrons for co-operation with the Army. and a proportion of the Fleet Air Arm personnel to work with the Navy,
tions.
A CASE FOR INQUIRY
It was a long time before we ships a very even established our right to have coeding.
Sir Wilfred and Lady Grenfell, pictured on the S.S. Majsatie on their arrival in New York. Sir Wilfred is famous ne the founder of
the misslons in Labrador and is on his way to inspect them."
Election of Hugh Baillie, shown above at his dosk, ne president of the United Press has been announced. Mr. Baillie, who succeeds Karl A. Bickel, has been exacutive vice-president of the organisation for four years. Mr. Bickel, who had been president since 1923, will continuo a director and member of the executiva committee.
A DEFENCE LOAN
men in the vicinity of the Royal. Dock-yards and in the depressed areas, to whom 85 per cent. of the instead of the money being paid cost of the ships would go in wages, !
now, in unemployment | out, as benefit and public assistance.
equipment decline, and had to be have been increased by £1,500,000, 1 -- content with a small Air Service this increase, owing to the par- administered by the Air Ministry, simony of previous Estimates, is other nations are building. which had many other preoccupa-swallowed up in making good de-
ficiencies in stores and equipment j and the cost of modernising oldi It is obviously quite impossible uneconomical pro-to provide out of revenue the
money for the necessary augmenta Naval observers. An admiral Directly the Treaties of London Lion of the Air Force and the re- I think it is generally agreed might be dependent upon some in-and Washington come to an end placement of our obsolete ships, There are millions of patriotic that a very considerable augmenta-experienced young Royal Air Force the Government will be faced with a there would appear to be no people who would accept a low rate tion of the Royal Air Force is observer for reports on which the the necessity of replacing a num-alternative to raising a Defence of interest in such an excellent in- absolutely necessary for the safety whole conduct of the Fleet and the ber of obsolete ships, which con Lonn while money is cheap. The vestment, which would carry with of Great Britain, and for carrying efficiency of its fire control might only be death traps if they have to work given would greatly benefit it an insurance of security and out any collective system of secu- depend.
encounter the modern ships which many thousands of British work-peace.
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