Aviation in Canada, 1917-1918 Being a Brief Account of the Work of the Royal Air Force Canada, the Aviation Department of the Imperial Munitions Board, and the Canadian — Inside the Classic

of the Royal Flying Corps, Canada. It may be asked why it was purposed to recruit and train in Canada by the agency of an Imperial wing, but it suffices to say that the work of this unit has been only one of the countless instances of coöperation between the mother country and the Dominion, that furthermore all arrangements entered into carried not only the consent and approval of the Canadian Government, but also the promise of every assistance, and that the utter fullness of the discharge of this promise is known best to those who are personally conversant with the various phases of the history of this unit of the Royal Flying Corps.

At the further meeting of the Air Board, held at Adastral House, January 1st, 1917, the personnel of the advance party was selected. The administration section consisted of the Officer Commanding, at that time lieutenant-colonel; two squadron commanders--a major and a captain; one flight commander--a captain; one flying officer--a lieutenant. The supply section consisted of one park commander, one first-class equipment officer and two second-class equipment officers; these a major, captain and two lieutenants. Two engineer officers, both majors--one of whom was of the Canadian Engineers and the other from the Royal Engineers services--followed a little later. The recruiting section, composed of a captain and three lieutenants, completed the party. Mechanical transport of 21 vehicles was also sent.

At this meeting the general premises governing the future operations of the wing were outlined, such as the intention to give only lower training in Canada, and liaison between the unit and the Imperial Munitions Board. It was further determined to organize twenty training squadrons. Owing to conditions in England at the moment, the question of personnel for the formation of the Canadian wing was difficult of solution, and it was stated quite frankly that the Royal Flying Corps, Canada, would be obliged to do its utmost to train both officers, non-commissioned officers and airmen for the various duties to be performed.

General and personnel equipment was arranged to be sent from England, but all machines and additional transport were to be obtained locally. The general purport of the meeting was, in brief, to provide the skeleton of a training unit, put this scanty personnel under the direction of the O.C. and trust to their united efforts to provide for that expanding output of partially trained pilots for which at the time there was such insistent demand.

Coincident with all this, matters in Canada had already begun to take shape. There was in Toronto a small aeroplane factory, which for the past year or two had been turning out machines used at a private flying school some nine miles from the city. Authority was received by the Imperial Munitions Board from the Air Board to acquire this organization, which, although its output was necessarily limited, afforded an opportunity for future expansion, once suitable premises were secured. The machinery and equipment of this undertaking were forthwith moved into much larger buildings leased from a local engineering works, and took shape as the Canadian Aeroplanes Limited, an organization owned by the Imperial Government, whose product was intended primarily to meet the requirements of the new Canadian wing.

Simultaneously there was formed the Aviation Section of the Imperial Munitions Board, to which section detailed reference is made elsewhere. Such, in short, were the arrangements which had been completed when on January 22nd the advance party of the Royal Flying Corps, Canada, arrived in Toronto.

A word about local conditions will not be amiss. The country was, of course, deep in snow, and the winter period in its most trying phase. Recruiting, for which methods had still to be formulated, was complicated by the fact that no Military Service Act was in force in Canada, and the country had been apparently combed bare of those who desired to enlist voluntarily. It is true that the Royal Naval Air Service had for months been drawing excellent material from Canada, but this unit offered the inducement of a commission on enlistment, while the R.F.C. held no commissions in its outstretched hands, but merely the promise of months of arduous work before qualifying for the distinction. That the Corps was authorized to recruit in Canada was due to an Order in Council passed by the Canadian Government. Application was also made to the Department of Militia and Defence that the unit might be rationed, clothed and medically attended to by that Department.