It seldom happens that the critics are provided with so
much powder and shot as was furnished by the report of the Cadman Committee. Both on Tuesday and Wednesday they made good use of it, and the Front Bench underwent two of the severest bombardments that it has experienced in this Parliament. It is true that military aviation was outside the Committee's terms of reference. The Prime Minister indeed went so far as to suggest that the reason why civil aviation had been neglected was that the Secretary of State was obliged to give his whole attention to the military side. But as Sir Hugh Seely and Sir Stafford Cripps both pointed out, it seems improbable that inefficiency in one branch of the department's activities is likely to be accom- panied by super-efficiency in the other. The most effective back-bench contribution came from Lieut.-Colonel Moore- Brabazon. Having looked forward to the time when we should receive a note from Herr Hitler asking that Sir Oswald Mosley should become Home Secretary in charge of the police, he went on to give his opinion that if an inquiry had been wanted on civil aviation it was wanted a hundredfold more on military aviation.
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