Finally, turning to the question of criticism, Major Baird appealed
to members to recognize the need of reserve. Within proper limits criticism was to be welcomed and might often be stimulating, but there was no more certain way of killing a man than to send him up in a machine which for some reason or other he considered to be unsound. The Air Board, he frankly admitted, were not satisfied with the machines on the front. They were endeavouring to improve them, but to go on clamouring for the production of a certain kind of machine in substitution for those we had did not help. It was not in the interests of the country to represent our machines as unsuit- able for the work they were performing when it was known that they could not be replaced at once, that they were being replaced as rapidly as possible, and that, however inadequate the machines might be, the dirties performed by our Air Services were second to none in the whole field of operations. The Vote was agreed to without a division.
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