The Aeroplane Output For all the Prime Minister's championship of
Lord Swinton public anxiety regarding the output of aeroplanes increases rather than diminishes, and there is ground for suggesting that it would increase more rapidly still if all the facts were known. When Lord Winterton tells the House of Commons, as he did on Tuesday, that we may look for the maximum output in two years' time it becomes necessary to plumb to the depths the reasons for almost criminal delays at a moment when delays are profoundly perilous to the national security. As things are the purchase of aeroplanes from America, if early deliveries of the necessary types can be secured, Is fully warranted, though, the need for that ought never te have arisen. There is much force in the question asked by Wing-Commander Cecil Wright, M.P., in The Times, why a country second to none in the production of motor- cars should be second to several in the production of aircraft. As to aeroplanes from the other side of the Atlantic, any permanent reliance must be placed on supplies from Canada —since these would still be available in wartime—not from the United States. But if Canadian factories are to be expanded for that purpose they must clearly be given some guarantee of continuity of orders. That involves the cementing of a close commercial and industrial relationship between the British Government and the Dominion—for which on general grounds there is a great deal to be said.
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