23 MAY 1931, Page 1

Parliament On Thursday, May 14th, the Prime Minister made a

statement on British airship policy. The shadow of the destruction of the R101 ' and with it of the best human knowledge of the subject that we possessed, hung over the House. Sir Samuel Hoare, an ex-Air Minister, and Sir John Simon, whose capacious brain absorbed great knowledge in the course of the inquiry that he conducted, both spoke in approval of the Govern- ment's general intention ; that is, to build no more airships at present ; to keep the station at Cardington going -as a nucleus- establishment ; to keep other mast. in repair ; to put our remaining ship, the ' R100,' into good condition, and let her be used for short flights to test the results of scientific experiments and of experi- ments with models, and for keeping a crew in training. This is a cautious scheme which will make it difficult to keep pace with other nations, but we accept it as probably the wisest in the circumstances.