12 AUGUST 1922, Page 3

As the outcome of a lively agitation in certain newspapers,

the Prime Minister announced last week that the Air Force would be strengthened by the provision of five hundred aero- planes for home defence at a cost of £2,000,000 a year. He asserted that nearly half of the additional expenditure would be met by savings on other branches of the Air Force, and that the total cost of the three Services would be less next year than it was in the present year. The Geddes Committee recommeaded the reduction of the Air Force Estimates from £15,000,000 to £10,000,000, and stated that in April last there should have bees 1,924 aeroplanes in excess of the established number. The Committee's advice, which the Government professed their intention of accepting, is now apparently is be ignored.