Rivalry

"Great Britain has been left far behind by France in the development of her air fleet," said Sir Samuel Hoare, Secretary of State for Air, to the British House of Commons. There are now 371 service planes owned by the British, while Prance has 1,260 machines in commission. The Secretary stated that, according to present programs, by 1925 France would have 2,187 military and naval airplanes while Great Britain would only have 575.

France also leads in air transport. According to Stephane Lausanne, of Le Matin, France now has eight active air lines, six radiating from Paris to London, Amsterdam, Bucharest, Warsaw, Geneva, Marseilles, one from Antibes to Ajaccio (Corsica), one across the Mediterranean from Toulouse to Casablanca in Morocco. England can boast of only three or four lines to the Continent.

The United States can scarcely compete with French supremacy in the air. In his final report as Assistant Secretary of War, J. Mayhew Wainright stated that the Army Air Service is faced with a " serious condition of affairs." Our equipment manufactured in war-time has been practically used up. The amounts of money appropriated for the purchase of new aircraft are so small that within two years we shall have on hand less than one-half the number of aircraft necessary for normal peacetime work.