for communication and commerce between the various
portions of the Empire.

A comparison of the French and British attitudes towards civil aviation
clearly demonstrates the two policies I have mentioned. Both France and
England grant subsidies--France the very much larger sum--but the great
difference lies in the objects aimed at. French policy is fostering
civil aviation as a part of its military policy and, a portion of the
subsidy being given to machines fulfilling service requirements, there
is a strong tendency for French civil aviation to be military air power
camouflaged. British policy, on the other hand, should aim at fostering
civil aviation primarily as a commercial concern and believes that air
commerce is the basis of air power as a whole. We are prepared to face
the tendency of military and civil machines to diverge if that
divergence is essential to the commercial machine.

An alternative to the British policy of maintaining a small air force
and fostering commercial aviation as a reserve is the Canadian plan of
a small air force training school and a civil Government flying service
with such objects as forest patrol, survey and coastguard duties, the
work being carried out on repayment for Government departments,
provincial governments and private corporations. The former method,
allowing of independent commercial expansion, is better suited to
British mentality and requirements, but its success will depend on a
genuine endeavour to make commercial aviation the real and vital basis
of our air power. Experience in commercial operation cannot be gained by
the exploitation of air routes or the carriage of mails or passengers
under Service auspices. It is only by running transport services, as far
as possible under private management, that operational data can be
obtained, economies effected, and the design of strictly commercial
machines improved.

To sum up. Military air supremacy can best be assured by the intensive
development of industrial air organization for commercial purposes. The
conception of civil aviation as the mainstay of air power as a whole is
right. Service aviation is bound by technical and financial limits; its
scope confined to the requirements of war. Civil aviation, on the other
hand, opens out a prospect of productive expansion. The steady growth of
the Continental services is already beginning to demonstrate the
importance of air transport.

FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.