Postblogging Technology, November 1953, I: Kulturkampf

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada




Dear Father:

An update from London, where yours truly continues to look for something to do that isn't swanning around film studios like a crazy investment-minded great aunt. Maybe I'll write a science fiction novel. It doesn't look that hard! Your son has not had any more chances to indulge his particular passions, because he has been attending one meeting after another in London about making sure that British radars play politely with American radars. Which, he says, "If I was interested in all this stuff I would be in television and making ten times as much money." SIGH.  

Your grandchildren are fine, not neglected in any way. It's just that I have plenty of help. The only reason Nat is cooking for us is that there isn't room to turn around in the kitchen due to the way that the building got a wall kicked in courtesy of Herr Goering, so the help doesn't eat here. Don't worry, though, Harry MacMillan has promised to pop over and fix it personally, so the place will be back at its full Edwardian grandeur by the time we leave next summer.

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Economist, 7 November 1953

Leaders

"Caution and Conservatism" Should governments spend all their time reversing the work of their predecessors? In general, no, not even when a bunch of socialists ran amok, although one can see the problem. The Throne Speech promises to get rid of the raw cotton control commission, which is such a tiny little matter that it doesn't really count as reversing; and doing something about rent control, which is bad, but so is the alternative, so The Economist swears up and down that they will be tiny, tiny little rent increases. But tax reform? That will be swingeing, because massive cuts to rich peoples' taxes will benefit everyone, as rich people are notorious for spreading their money all around the town.

"Paris on the Red River" The special Assembly session on the Indo China War ended with a 317 to 251 vote in favour of continuing the war in spite of the French wanting an immediate end to the war and th return of French forces to Europe so they can outnumber the germans in the European Army. Everyone now doubts "French moral ability" to sustain the war," but it would be terrible if Laniel were defeated in the Assembly on this; so he promised that the Associated States will take over the war as quickly as possible; that he would keep on negotiating; and that the other free nations would recognise their responsibility and share the burden. Besides, evacuation is impossible without massive loss and slaughter. On the other hand, it seems guaranteed that the French will eventually take what terms they can. So can something happen before "eventually"? Navarre has been reinforced with nine battalions from Europe to prevent a Viet Minh offensive in the dry season that might well have pushed the French to the negotiating table by May, which will do as a date for "eventually."

"State Farming in Practice" Everyone agrees that land nationalisation is a good idea due to land being a natural monopoly, but on th eother hand everyone agrees that it is politically impossible. It would be nice if Labour were still talking about nationalisation, because then The Economist could make fun of it, but it is not. Instead, Sir Hartley Shawcross wants some kind of tax on the value of agricultural land, which would be a good idea if it were a tax on unused land, but that doesn't seem to be what he is driving at, so since there's not much of rent left to tax, who cares? That leaves us with Crown land, of which there is a lot, about 2 million acres owned by everyone from the Air Ministry to the Ecclesiastical Commission. all, or, at least, all in agricultural use, run by the Agricultural Commission, hence "state farming." Hence state farming? Is this a good way of farming (and improving) marginal land? Time will tell! 

"Proud Borrower and Shy Investor" Swarthy foreigners in foreign lands say they want investment, but keep on making it difficult in various ways. Perhaps General Naguib's Egypt can manage its affairs to be an exception! The Americans have been doing public aid with the thought that private investment will take over from public under Point Four, but it hasn't worked that way so far. 

Notes

The Economist thought the Prime Minister's Speech responding to the Queen's Speech was great, especially the part where the Prime Minister admitted that a Big Three (Four? Five?) meeting wasn't such a good idea, after all, especially when the Russians don't want to talk, after all. Bidault has come out with a full blown defence of the EDC, so maybe it has a chance, after all. The East Germans are open to German reunification, are hunting "partisans," and have increased the gold content of their money to improve the black market exchange rate. Two articles in the current Lancet suggest that intelligence test scores can increase over time, indicating that "intelligence is not a fixed quantity," which the magazine thinks is worth noting considering how much we use intelligence tests these days. 
 

"Operation Rescue" We get into the proposed amendment of the Rent Restriction Acts in a bit more detail. Yes, it will allow very large increases in the rent of older houses; but since that rent is very low right now, it's fine!  The other part is the White Paper on demolitions, that establishes how the Government is going to go about tearing down hundreds of thousands of dilapidated buildings during a housing shortage. Also, there are repairs, also, there are those 300,000 new houses a year, of which The Economist continues to disapprove. 

 "Power Politics" Thomas Murray of the AEC thinks that the first country to harness atomic power for electricity will be even more powerful than the first country with atom bombs,because all the industry will flock there to take advantage of the cheap electricity. What that means for Britain is "not certain," but if there's an excuse to cut funding somewhere, anywhere, it gets a tingling feeling, and atomic bombs are expensive. Britain might also be spending too much on health, or spending it on the wrong things.

"Kenya's Emptying Kitty" Kenya's  is running out of money, too. Kenya's revenues have fallen from £9 million to £5 million over the last eighteen months. A deficit of £3 million is expected in 1953, and another £2 million in the first half of 1954. Since Kenya can't raise taxes or cut social services in the middle of the Emergency, The Economist advises the government to give Kenya a big cheque. 

The Economist finds that even with Mossadegh gone, titis still hard to persuade the Persians that their oil is worthless and that Anglo-Iranian is taking it off their hands out of sheer good will. Some people in Japan seem inclined to take up a trade agreement recently offered by Red China and break with the Koumintang. Not enough to matter, but maybe there will be more later! Lord Samuel's Hibbert Centenary Lecture concludes that there has been progress in human affairs, good news all around! The travel allowance has been raised from £40 to £50 so that British tourists can really go to town in Europe. The Economist sees the opportunity to really stretch our brains by arguing that it should be higher, because most tourists spend less and the loss of foreign exchange is quite small, only £82 million last year. Or it could be abolished altogether, but that's not nearly as entertainingly contrary. The twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Falange Party was quite the shindig for 150,000 Spanish Fascists in Madrid last week, but it doesn't show that Franco is a Fascist, especially since some of the resolutions at the party congress sounded almost critical of his government. Everything is just fine! Except in Germany, where Dr. Erhard is celebrating the successes of the German economy by saying very mean things about Britain. He's awful! (Although he is right about what is keeping the United States of Europe.)

From The Economist of 1853 we have "Russia and the West" "It seems certain that hostilities have actually commenced at the seat of war," we're told, reminding us of a world when it took time for the news to spread. The Turks have sent troops across the Danube, and the magazine figures that the Russians are desperate to find a way out. After all, the Czar has somehow managed to unit France and Britain against him, which impossible accomplishment "must" make him eager to "retrace his steps." However, we should be careful not to embarrass them on the way. 

Letters

W. R. Trehane, Vice Chairman of the Milk Marketing Board, writes in to defend the Milk Marketing Board. The Editor is testy in reply. N. A. Tremlow of Pye Radio points out that FM radio is just a fad, and customers would much prefer the money be put into television and colour television. G. Johnson points out that the ratio of students to teachers in Surrey is 1 to 50, so no wonder parents are opting to spend money on private school, and instead of making that difficult, the government should focus on improving public school (or whatever they call it in England.) Michael Hope points out that there is such a thing as central heating in Britain, too. His house has had it for twenty years!

Books

John Wheeler-Bennett's The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics, 1918--45, is another one of his fine books about the Germans. It's elegant and powerful, but too long and "with conspicuous faults." Duff Cooper's Old Men Forget isn't just a politician's memoir, it is an indiscreet politician's memoir. It is also a good look in at the way that Neville Chamberlain, and only Chamberlain, was responsible for Munich.  In Stanley Baldwin: An Examination of Some Features of Mr. G. M. Young's Biography, D. C. Somervell and the Faber Press make a passionate argument for paper rationing while trying to make the point that Young was very mean to Baldwin in a book, a freestanding book, complete with a dust jacket, of 132 pages. Rosalie Godwin Grylls (which is a real name) has William Goldwin and His World, which is about how "one of the most scarifying revolutionary writers" of the French Revolution period (which was pretty scary in Britain, too. How's that for the deep background you need to follow this letter???) The author tries to make the period real for us, but she's just a silly girl. On the other hand, it was about time there was a book about this very important person. A. Goodwin, The French Revolution, establishes that there is something in the air right now. Because we're all waiting for the next French Revolution? The reviewer shows us how it is done. Laniel is just like "Brienne and Lamoignon." The nobles and hereditary legal officials are like the people on the other side nowadays. The problem with the book is that the author stops holding the reader's hand halfway through, after which one completely loses the thread. Lord Campion has joined forces with D. W. S. Lidderdale to author European Parliamentary Procedure; Lawrence Rosinger's associates in producing The State of Asia: A Contemporary Survey, are too numerous to be named. Asian Nationalism and the West is an edited volume from William L. Holland, but it and the forgoing are from the Institute of Pacific Relations. All worthy, worthy books, but unfortunately the Pacific books took a year or two to write and so are hopelessly out of date. 

American Survey

After a main Leader in which The Economist looks for signs the Administration won't let the protectionists carry Washington off to some Appalachian hollow, and find some, we get "Southern Solidarity," investigates why the President's personal popularity hasn't carried off the creation of a two  party system in the South, as Hoover has long hoped. It's not because Hoover is an idiot, no sir. It's because Eisenhower is an idiot who can't stop saying mean things about the TVA, even though he seems to have no plans of doing anything about it.   

 

American Notes

"Republican Reverses" The Economist reports on the terrible results for Republicans in the New Jersey off-year elections, confirming that the results in Wisconsin weren't just a reflection of discontent on the farms. With the House now 218 to 215, the Republican majority in the House is almost as thin as it can possibly be, and it doesn't exactly show off the President's personal popularity, as he ended up endorsing all the losing candidates. Speaking of political perennials, Federal spending continues to brush up against the debt limit in spite of various expedients. The annual McGraw-Hill survey of planned capital investment agrees closely with the Department of Commerce estimates in showing little sign of a slowdown in response to the anticipated recession. 

The World Overseas

"Pakistan Without a Crown" Pakistan is now a republic, which doesn't change anything, but The Economist still thinks that it is reasonable to be unreasonably upset. 

"Yemen Sets its Doors Ajar" Yemen is about as closed as Tibet. We're reminded that it used to be called Arabia Felix, and that it is mountainous and gets a lot of rain, that it is in the UNO and the Arab League, that it had an uprising in 1948, that its main export is coffee, but the crop has declined due t the rising use of the mild narcotic, qat, that it also exports hides and skins, and has some potential to export cotton, fruits and vegetables, and that it might have oil. For which reason it has admitted a few foreign technicians and surveyors and signed some import contracts with German firms; and is forming a bank, with United Nations help, to reform the currency, which currently consists of Indian rupees, gold sovereigns and louis, and silver Maria Theresa thalers. 

"Colonial Revolutions in the Making" Two extended pieces explain how "Moscow" and then Mao Tse-tung came up with their, I assume, slightly varying strategies for taking over the unions in the World Federation of Trade Unions as a step towards fomenting colonial revolutions for a page and a half before backing into the actual news in the last paragraph, which is that the WFTU is having a convention in Vienna, where some activists called for raiding the ICTFU because it's good for revolutions. In other Communism-is-terrible news, there is a "Crisis on Hungary's Farms," which appears to be the same crisis as always, (farmers don't like collectivisation and want higher prices for their produce), but maybe it's worse or something and Hungary is about to have a peasants' rebellion. Or maybe not!Then it is off to check in with the German coal industry, which is short of capital, relatively long on labour, and not increasing its production enough to ward off further European coal crises with possibly more American coal imports. 

The Business World

"Power and the Atom" The Queen's Speech promised a "statutory corporation for atomic power." The Economist approves at such great length that I was worried that it would run out of space to approve of "free trade in cotton," but I worried in vain! There's even space to warn Labour in advance not to re-establish control. And that's even though it has to explain how it will work with currency controls. 

Business Notes

The stock market has gone bullish, Tube Investments had disappointing returns, and then Notes and Notes of finance. Europe has suddenly gone all in against convertibility, which isn't a reversal by the Government, not really, the magazine anxiously explains; The EPU will be extended through June of 1955; British dollar holdings are up but we are still worried; the new Loan (refinancing of the British national debt by the Treasury; perhaps it had something to do with the harder money policy, I don't know?) might not have been the success it was originally thought of as being, but bank deposits are at a record high; the cinema industry has agreed on the new film levy; an article about changing the death duty; and about how the "Uniscan" agreement between the Scandinavian countries doesn't mean very much with the end of convertibility with Britain during the crisis of 1951. There are to be industry awards in the British accounting industry, because look how much fun the Oscars are; rubber prices are down and so is the rubber stockpile, somehow; gas is cheaper in Britain, the insurance industry has its difficulties, domestic rayon sales have recovered; tungsten prices are falling due to overproduction inspired by higher prices offered by the Ministry of Supply, which now has a huge surplus being offered at uneconomical prices. On the other hand, manganese is scarce, and industry is urged to conserve it. Ivory prices are "firm." 

Flight, 6 November 1953

Leaders

"Relentless Progress" Six years ago, the only thing going on in the air was fighters, and cutbacks and delays were ruining everything. But now everything is great! V-bombers are the answer to atomic war, because if we atom bomb their atom bombs, they can't atom bomb us! Flight hopes that the veil of secrecy is "hiding good progress --especially in electronics." 

"Super Sabre" This issue has a preliminary report on the F-100, the "first of the level sonics." The Hunter and Swift might be an improvement on the Sabre and the MiG-15, but the Super Sabre is the first of a new era, and the Russians have surely got something up their sleeve. It is time for a British super-sonic fighter, and an all-weather one, as quickly as possible. 

From All Quarters reports that Flight has had a good look at pictures of the MiG-15 that arrived in Korea, which no Red official has shown up to claim as yet. It likes the canopy and gunsight, because they show British influence, and notes the problems the design has had with spin recovery. The Saab-32 has achieved supersonic speed "under complete control," it is reported. The Fleet Air Arm has formed its first anti-submarine helicopter squadron, No. 706. The American decision to withdraw its weather ship fleet from the North Atlantic has not been greeted with universal approval. Viscount production at Weybridge stands at 24 against a total of 84 firm orders so far, with production beginning at Hurn, freeing Weybridge for "bigger things." Bristol Aeroplane Canada has opened an engine factory in Montreal. 

"Airliner Crewing: Navigators and Engineers Concerned About Their Future" The Navigator's and Engineer Officer's Union is worried that the Comet only has two pilots, which is bad for safety and the union members' careers. 

Here and There reports that the new Norwegian CAS is only 38, that it is now permitted to acknowledge the existence of the De Havilland Gyron jet engine and new makes of the Avon, Conway, and Nomad. The RAe.S heard an interesting paper on the prospects for small turbines from F.R. Bell of Blackburn, which has the British license for the Turbomeca line. De Havilland will begin machining the giant hollow steel blades for the Bristol Britannia airliner at a new factory next month. Fairey's  "envelope tooling" method got a big boost last week when replacement parts for two urgently-needed trial Gannets damaged in a collision could be installed straight from the factory. The USN is now operating 9,940 aircraft, with 14 of 1129 ships in commission being aircraft carriers. 

Aircraft Intelligence reports that the Bell X-1 is officially a 967mph, 70,140ft experimental rocket plane. Lockheed reports officially that the Neptune carries a magnetic submarine detector, that the underwing J34 installations will not become general on Neptunes, that production of the C-130 assault transport will begin as soon as B-47 work tails off, that work on the Bomarc missile continues. Dassault has its Avon-Mystere ready for test flights. The latest thing from Kurt Tank in Argentina is quite the thing, whatever it is. 

"Thoughts on the F-100: The Sabre's Successor: Brute Force and Knife Edge Aerodynamics" The North American F-100 started out as a private project, aiming for supersonic speed with the brute force of a Pratt and Whitney J57 engine and the finesse of a 45-degree sweep, knife edge wing. Our American Correspondent points out that he was surprised to see how little the wing profile varied from the F-86 when the delta planform was already known, and was probably inspired by "devil they know" thinking and a fear of being overtaken by rivals like the F-102. The result is, once again, very high wing loading, of 84 lb/sq foot, up from 76 on the F-86. With lift and low speed stability at issue, the design retained leading-edge slats. The wing is also probably almost completely solid, given its extremely thin profile. Like the slat, the very low tailplane is probably intended to fight Dutch roll. Wing control surfaces, inboard ailerons, are used as in the B-52, but not because of concern about aileron reversal but to control air flow. The cockpit is pressurised, of course, and the stalky undercarriage allows high angles of attack. The solid wing means that fuel has to be carried in pylons. Much of the structure, especially aft, is titanium. Production deliveries of F-100s will begin this winter. 

Flight does right by the community by printing a long article by Air Commodore A. H. Wheeler arguing for a National Museum of Aircraft, or, at least, the beginnings of a collection to go into one, when it is built. 

"Comets in the Commons" The Corporation reports were debated in the Commons, but that was all boring finances and balancing load factors, with the most excitement a brief excursion on the subject of giant flying boats, which no-one believes are even as real as Santa Claus, so that was all a bit of disappointment, and it was agreed that the next day the lads could have it on about the Americans doing the Comet dirty by scuttling its Certificate of Airworthiness. Air Commodore Harvey [M.P., Cons., Member for Giant Subsidies for Bristol/Short Brothers/Belfast] explained that the Comet 3 doesn't even have a British C of A yet on account of it not actually existing just yet, so the Americans can be forgiven. Remember how the Dove got sorted out in the end? Now we have to do it again for turbine-powered planes. Flight then summarises all that boring airline talk.

"3-D Aviation: A Helicopter Pupil Tries the W.S. 51: Lessons and Observations: By the Editor" I have decided to include the byline in the title even though the University of Chicago would yell at me because it seems like a special kind of endorsement for the article. (Maurice Smith is the editor of Flight, G. Geoffrey Smith having died several years ago.) Smith has been flying for Flight for years, everything from airliners to, now, a pretty big helicopter.  The S. 51 sounds like a real rig, with doors that come off in your hands, stops that go missing, weights that go missing, a collective that is long for normal arms,  and possibly loads in the luggage box that shouldn't be there. In general, I wouldn't want to fly on one of these things! 

"NATO Bears Its Teeth" NATO demonstrated its air power at the Tunis Range of the Sennelager in Germany for 800 assorted dignitaries the other day, and Flight was there to see the ground blown up for practice by Canberras, Vampires, and Lincolns. 

"Instrument Approach Research: Precis of a Talk to the R. Ae. S. by J. F. W. Mercer, of the Blind Landing Experimental Unit of the Ministry of Supply" Mercer dealt with the "main" aspects of blind landings in his lecture. Currently, ICAO standard is for ILS to bring an aircraft within 200ft of the ground, after which landing is accomplished by flareout and visual markers. The Unit is working with an ILS system that couples with an automatic pilot to give automatic blind landing. The autopilot receives control impulses via low-power DC. The aircraft may be said to "hunt" around the ILS signal. The goals of research are rate stabilisation, achieved when the aircraft is on the beam without regard for cross-winds, with the primary difficulties for research being beam distortion; and horizontal stalisation, with the interrelation of aircraft heading with !DM being used to control the rate of closing and hold the plane on the beam. Wind correction can be applied to the ILS, but variation of gust strength and resultant changes in sinking rate have forced the abandonment of this approach. Pitch altitude stabilisation to maintain glide path is a promising alternative. For now, with blind landing limited to delivering the plane at the right position at 200ft, heading stabilisation is enough, and work is focussed on distortions. All tests so far have been conducted with piston aircraft turbine aircraft will be another thing. 

John Bishop offers is idiosyncratic views on airline pilot training. The special Hawker Siddeley Mission to America to find out what is happening at Curtiss Wright is back home. Also, the civil flight training school at Ealing thinks that "avigation" is a good word for air navigation. 

Correspondence

W. A. Brown thinks that the proposed 25 storey tower on the Thames South Bank is going to be a  problem for helicopter transport services. J. R. D. Bethell and L. Donoghue reminisce about the old days, before the war. A. W. Harrison has thoughts about sonic bangs and the "puffs" of vapour that supersonic planes produce. 

Civil Aviation notes Hunting's new trooping contract from the UK to Gibraltar and Malta. A Sabena DC-6B on the new Ridgeway (Manchester)-Idlewild service was inaugurated with a special direct, 12 hour flight with reduced load. BCPA has had its first accident in four years, a Sydney-Vancouver DC-6 hitting a hill at San Francisco, killing all 11 passengers and 8 crew. Jan Smuts Airport is deemed to be too far from anywhere, and everyone wants to fly Viscounts. 

The Industry reports that R. B. Pullins has had a party, and Winston Electronics has bought a fabrication shop and will be known from now on as Winston Metal Fabrications, bit of a step backwards, don't you think?

 

The Economist, 14 November 1953

Leaders

"Conserving the Featherbed" Food rationing is to end, but the marketing boards will endure and The Economist is concerned in advance that it will all end up with consumers paying too much for food, while farmers luxuriate in their soft and warm feather bed. 

"An Idea for Bermuda" The Big Four talk is now a Big Three talk in Bermuda. What are Eisenhower, Churchill, and Laniel going to talk about? The Economist suggests Germany, and the EDC. 

"Britain and Japan" "There is no longer any doubt" that Japan is re-emerging into the world as the largest industrial economy in Asia and "a considerable military power." Britain should probably try to be nicer to Japan, for example showing the Crown Prince in the film of the Coronation and not appointing an ambassador who had been refused by China so that the younger generation of Japanese don't decide that they are a colony of America rather than an equal partner and go all Communist on us.

Ernest Popplewell, Baron Popplewell (1899--1977)

Walter Stoneman

 - Original publication: Bromide Print,

 5 November 1947Immediate source: 

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/

search/use-this-image.php?mkey=mw228455,

 Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php

?curid=65305203article 

"The Charabanc and the Law" "There used to be something of vulgarity about the idea of joy-riding in numbers of more than two or three at a time. A flavour of paper hats and football rattles, of beer and fish and chips, clings still about the good old un-English word 'chara.'" What? I'm sorry? Do you even understand this?   I grant that The Economist admits right up that it's not English, so I guess I have to give it the benefit of the doubt, but . . . You know what? I'll make an exception to the usual rule of dealing with silly Leaders and read the next paragraph, too. It seems to be about "coach parties," or "coach trips," which seem to be bus tours? You can only do that, it seems to me, with a private bus that you rent out, and the magazine seems to be on the same wavelength, so I will quite arbitrarily assume that this is how it works in England, which makes the rest of the , was MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 1945 to 1966, and 

out to be an extended fret about the licenses that such private busses might require. I'll give it about fifty-fifty odds as to this being a problem in the real world, and not just in the magazine's head. It's not like the body of the Leader troubles itself with minutiae along the lines of facts, figures, or specific events that would let me sort it out! (Except that something called the "Thesiger Committee" exists. Thanks for that!) 

Notes of the Week

"The Regency" The Regency Bill makes Prince Philip the Regent in the event the Queen dies before Charles is 18, which is unfortunate timing since the 1937 Bill, which was supposed to make a permanent and standing arrangement precisely to prevent allegations of, for example, the Mountbatten family playing politics, that would have made it Margaret. So the argument is that the princess is  being given a good hiding for  trying to marry the wrong man, while the Mountbattens are being rewarded for playing the game. Apart from that, everyone now agrees that the Government got itself out of some difficult positions coming from the Queen's Speech. Everyone agrees that when someone important takes the salute at the October Revolution parade in Moscow, it means something, but then those darn Russians went and had Voroshilov and Bulganin take the salute, and they're not important at all! That's cheating! Unusually for the weekly Trieste article, something actually happened there in the last seven days. (A demonstration, and some violence.) The Indians have an impossible job in Korea, and everyone is grateful that they are doing it, and it really is a sight to see the Americans in a position where they have to start shooting again by their own account of things, but don't want to, so don't. The debate over ending food rationing featured Labour MPs repeating the old "Myth of Starvation." No-one (hardly anyone) has starved in Britain in at least the last sixteen years, so logically it will never happen again. The Economist is not impressed with the scant number of emergency regulations the Conservatives have cancelled since coming to power, what with all their promises of a new era of freedom and liberty in opposition. The recent pay increase for judges is deemed inadequate, and also taxes are too high.

"Defiance in Northern Rhodesia" In the latest "Confederation could be good for everyone if the European settlers suddenly stop being racist" news, the opposition in its brand new government are throwing a fit over the addition of two new seats for Africans and Europeans (each) on the legislative council, on the grounds that there are too many Africans there already. Sudan is having an election and there are allegations of Egyptian interference. 

"French Budgetary Labours" The proposed budget does nothing more than "arrest the upward trend of budgetary expenditure," mainly by cutting defence, since American aid covers so much of the cost of the war in Indo-China.  Cuts in national investment have been avoided, but seem like they would be easier under the proposed new budgetary rules, which is bad; and the government claims that reduced taxes on investment will get all that French money out from under the mattress and into the market. 

The new Food and Drugs Act gives the Ministry of Food increased powers to regulate food hygiene and defines various kinds of eating establishments more clearly. You're still on our own on the difference between "snack bars" and "milk bars," though! (Unless you ate at them in London often enough to be an expert in your own right. Ned is a wonderful cook, I'm learning, and we all find eating out in London to be a trial, even compared to California. You should see what they call "Chinese food" around here!) The British Council, which last year cost the country £2.5 million, will spread the good word of British culture less in Persia and China this year (since it is out of both places), and more in Japan, where it now is.  

 
 

What the fuck even is this?

  "Ireland's Persisting Inflation" The Irish are running their economy wrong. So is Poland, but that's to please the Soviets,, where industrial investment is now being cut to channel more money into agriculture and services before there is (more) rioting. The new German government gets a bit of a tut-tutting for not doing enough to keep the right wing parties on the margin. The Economist hopes for an "Adenauer/Ollenhauer" two-party system, instead. It also thinks that it is time for bygones to be bygone. The Spanish Civil War was just so long ago, and we put up with Peron and Salazar now, so why not Franco? Well, I don't know, maybe because he;s a Fascist? (Which, by the way, is only okay in Spain, not Germany.) "One does not want to be stuffy about Guy Fawkes Day," says the magazine before being stuffy about Guy Fawkes Day.

From The Economist of 1853 we get "Wage Claims," which begins by admitting that things are good in the manufacturing districts, that wage claims ought to be on the menu, and the "operatives" aren't rioting, as they used to do. However, they're forming unions, and that's terrible. 

Letters

D. P. Sayer of the British Electricity Authority lets forth a mighty blast in response to the magazine's skepticism about the Super Grid. In particular, the magazine shouldn't be uncritically repeating American criticisms when it doesn't even know the difference between a load factor and a power factor. 

Kathleen Jones of the University of Manchester corrects some mistaken history and legal details of mental illness care in Britain. Donald Mclean Johnston also has comments. 

Books

William L. Langer and S. Everett Gleason have The World Crisis and American Foreign Policy: 1940--1. This is actually a review of Volume 2, as Volume 1 came out a year ago and was well-reviewed. There being nothing new to say(!!!) it doesn't say it, but it does clear things up very nicely. John Hunt's The Ascent of Everest is too rushed to be a really great book about the ascent of Everest. Sir Maurice Powicke's The Thirteenth Century, 1216--1307 is one of those books that sets off a century by events rather than the calendar, both in England, which probably means that it is actually a book about England in the Thirteenth Century. Am I right? I'm right! Unfortunately, it is a volume in the Oxford History of England series, and isn't on the same scale. It is 80 pages longer, but all politics, much of it original research rather than summarising the state of the field, which is but not what the other volumes did,  so it is a disappointment. Cecil Woodham-Smith's The Reason Why explains how two "aristocratic asses" got the Light Brigade massacred. The author is apparently a lady? Diane Adams Schmitt's Anatomy of a Satellite is a look at how the situation in Czechoslovakia managed to gradually creep, as it seems, out of control. Griffith Taylor has edited Geography in the Twentieth Century, which is still an uneven collection, but not as much as the first edition of 1951, and the author's "distinctive ideas on racial and political geography" don't sound like they contribute to a general review of the science of geography. Wilhelm Hoetl's The Secret Front is interesting but unreliable. 

American Survey

"Back to Containment" The rough balance in the House means that America is going to settle for sending some atomic artillery to Europe in way of telling the Soviets "not one step further." The Russians will stand pat and wait for Western resolution to weaken. The Administration would like to fight "premature independence" around the world, but it isn't clear that Congress will allow it. 

American Notes

"Brownell's Bombshell" The Attorney General's announcement that Truman promoted a Russian spy over J. Edgar Hoover's objections is the biggest thing since Alger Hiss. Truman has been subpoenaed to appear before HUAC, along with Justice Clark and James Byrnes. However, there's some question about whether an ex-President or a Governor of South Carolina should be deposed before the Committee; the President is in trouble for saying that he left it to Brownell to decide whether, or how to make the allegations public. In traditional fashion, the magazine leaves it to the end of the note to explain that the spy in question is Harry Dexter White, and the issue is whether these early FBI reports identified him as a spy, considering that he was only exposed by Elizabeth Bentley in 1948. (She had been deposed by the FBI in 1944, but it isn't clear anyone took her seriously.) The Attorney General refuses to make the contents of the FBI report public, but a grand jury did see it in 1947, and refused to press an indictment. Now, as we know, Washington is withholding decoded Russian documents because they were cracked using stolen letters, which would be embarrassing if revealed, and would be cause for a mistrial, anyway. So is the incriminating information from that material? Or is this just more McCarthyism? 

"Silver Lining in the West" The Republican win in Los Angeles means a three seat majority in the House, and not 1, as was feared last week. Republicans are now fighting over whether the winner won because he was pro-Eisenhower or because some of the more conservative Republican names campaigned for him. It looks as though unemployment might be set to rise in the new year. The new system of classifying documents is a great improvement over Truman's system, so quickly put in place at the beginning of the Korean War. Secretary Benson's latest idiocy, closing seven regional soil conservation offices, gets a brief disemboweling. The railways are profitable this year and have almost finished switching over to diesel, but they're still having trouble stemming the loss of passengers. The National Security Council, which is in charge of such things for the most obvious reasons, has put Theodore Streibert in charge of the latest version of the U.S.'s overseas "culture war" office, the United States Information Agency, in the hopes that he will somehow avoid all the eruptions that come when you put "culture" and "foreigner" in the same sentence and speak it before a Republican Congressman. (And some of the women, too!)

The World Overseas

"The Death of a Desert King" Ibn Saud is dead, and Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz is the new King of Saudi Arabia. He was a great guy, and very pro-British. Will it be the deluge after him? Probably. Maybe. Who can say, really? Is that a page-and-a-half? Can I knock off now? Hurray! The Economist notices that Western Europe has returned to prosperity, the only question being the balance of defence and investment. There hasn't been enough nothing in this issue about Trieste, so here's more. Speaking of which, a full page on the process of writing a budget for the UNO. And there has been a revolt in what the magazine chooses to call Atjeh, the magazine now acknowledges, five weeks after an uprising began on 20 September on the "Verandah of Mecca." "Atjeh," it says here, "is yet another fragment of the progressive disintegration of Indonesia's unitary state." The Economist recommends federalism before turning to a detailed examination of the Soviet Note. The Soviets want peace and unity in Korea, an end to aggression against China, and for all those "clearly aggressive" U.S. bases around the periphery of the territory of the peace power bloc, as it puts it, kindly dismantled. 

The Business World

"Franchise for Atomic Energy" The White Paper on the new United Kingdom Atomic Energy Commission, or whatever it will be called, gets two-and-a-half enthusiastic pages, as does the appointment of Edwin Plowden to run it. 

Business Notes

Finance! Finance and United Steel! More finance! Savoy Hotel shares? That's a story? It turns out that it is because we're suddenly worried that stock prices are wrong from the point of view of encouraging investment and proper use of resources. At least it is more relevant news than the addition of a glass window to the public viewing gallery at the London Stock Exchange, which is the next Note! 

"Warning the Optimists?" During the debate on the economic situation, Hugh Gaitskell warned that too much spending is going to consumption, not enough to investment, and Rab replied that if consumption started to drive up inflation, he would absolutely step in, and, in general, those speculating on what the final budget would look like after supplementary estimates to cover the Cuban sugar deal and recent setbacks on cereal, would be wrong to take too hopeful a view. The airlines are getting a bit more borrowing room to cover their losses, and everyone is throwing cold water on the idea of someone buying and using the Saro Princesses. There is also more money for the movie industry, although the Government sounds a bit cross about it. Britain is buying $80 million in tobacco and taking some American butter, which it will be paying for in sterling, leaving the Americans to figure out what to do with it. Air Finance, Ltd., gets a Note. Commodities are rebounding a bit, so are exports, coal output is up again (4.67 million tons last week, up 83,000t over the same period last year) and it might just be grudgingly admitted that the coal situation is okay. Steel production broke all records in October, achieving an annual rate of 18.46 million tons, with a total production for the year expected to be 17.5 million tons. 

Flight, 13 November 1953

Leaders

"Crew Cuts" There are going to be fewer air crew in the future, that's just a fact. BOAC is moving towards an all-pilot cockpit crew, some of whom will have navigational qualifications, but it isn't there yet. 

By Brian Snelson - originally posted to Flickr as Bristol 403 2 Litre,
CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6502769

"Viscounts' Darts Uprated" The only turboprop in commercial service at the end of, eight years of talk, is up 80 to 90 shaft horsepower, or from 1400 to 1550shp at takeoff, allowing the Viscount to clear a new maximum all up weight of 60,000lbs, giving 18mph more at higher cruising altitudes, reducing Dart engine specific consumption by 9% and extending range. 

From All Quarters reports that the Duke of Edinburgh visited Filton the other day to see what's holding up the Britannia, look at some missiles at close quarters, and take a spin in a 403. R. H. Weir replaces F. R. Banks as Director of Engine Research at the MoS because you just can't have too many old boys. Arthur C. Clark gave a nice talk about exploring interplanetary space to the Students' Section of the R. Ae.S. the other day. The youngsters seemed a lot less impressed by the "25,000mph" figure for escaping Earth's gravity than Flight. Which is because Flight writers and readers are still stuck on Spads in their heads! Everyone was shocked to see a Supermarine S6B of Schneider Cup fame just moored out in the rain at Southampton the other day. There will be Investigations. Heads Will Roll! Mr. Wimpenny's talk on "Stability and Control" to the R.Ae.S gets a blurb. 

"Plans for the Princess" Are to quietly knock them down when no-one's looking (see "Supermarine S.6B'), but you can't say that, and the dotard has directed that we find a use for them, so here's a story about Aquila Airways taking them on. Aquila operates six Sunderlands (under the various makes and tradenames rolled out of Southampton over the years). It's absolutely ready to fly Princesses! Right after they get the operational engines that Bristol can't even build for the Britannias. Did I mention that the British taxpayer is somehow on the hook for three Princess hulls, two of which haven't even flown? 

Here and There reports that there are rumours of an American hydrogen bomb test at Eniwetok, that Neville Duke will not make a new attempt on the speed record in a Hunter, that MR. Dulles has corrected Mr. Talbott, and U.S. atomic bombs will not be stored at the new American air bases in Spain, that Canadian Aviation Electronics is building a CF-100 simulator for the RCAF, that Robert A. Wagner, formerly of Hillier, is rejoining the firm from Hughes. Sir John Siddeley has died in a Jersey nursing home. E. W. Titterton, a Professor of Physics at Australian National University, says that Britain can now supply atomic weapons for all sorts of uses for all three branches of the armed services, because it is now a physics professor's job to relay this kind of information. Rear Admiral C. J. Ross has joined the Board of Armstrong Siddeley. Ross was associated with the Engineering Branch during his career, but started as an executive officer and completed it as the chief of staff to the Vice Admiral, Aircraft Carriers. 

 

"Westinghouse Turbojets" Now that Westinghouse's whole development programme has blown up, it's time to check in at the power house to find out how it is doing! Westinghouse came to turbojets from the power industry and naval machinery, and has been an original designer, leading to turbojets that look unlike anyone else's. The J34 was a great success for the company, but the J46 is well behind and its failure would create a serious bottleneck, since no other engine has the same geometry. Whether that would be a bad thing with the "speedy, but frightening" Cutlass is another thing. What about the J40? It is a bizarre contraption, fully 25ft long to achieve its 40" diameter, and this seems unnecessary and could use a redesign that gets the "air in and out in a reasonable time." But that's not going to happen, and Westinghouse is going to build the Avon, instead. 

Canada's aviation industry expansion is going ahead great guns. 

"Man-to-Man Talk-Downs" Flight was looking to fill some pages, and Ekco has its new GCA cabinet to flog, and here we are. 

"Crusader Coach: Stansted-Nicosia by Skyways" Ten lines fly in, or plan to fly into Nicosia, where the runway is being extended, and Skyways' Yorks are among them for all your fun (sort of) in the Sun (probably) needs. At least the food is better than in Britain! T 

Aircraft Intelligence reports that he Meteor F8 gets a new canopy, Avro Canada is working on a flying saucer (no, really!), Michael Stroukoff is still talking up the C-123, the Convair B-58 is going to be quite the plane, the Douglas A3D is quite the plane. So is the B-26, which, like the Hurricane, lingers in these pages. 

Karl Larsson, "Replacing the DC-3: Economic and Technical Aspects of a Worldwide Problem: A North American Viewpoint: Abstract of a paper given at some Canadian shindig with much too much name, last October" You know what we should think about? Replacing the DC-3! But not with the Convairliner, the Martin Number-o-Number, the Curtiss-Wright Commando, any of a dozen "Super DC-3s," the Ambassador, or planes from Brazil or Sweden or France. No, sir! Never mind the fact that the DC-3 still flies under 1937's Bulletin 7A, and no airplane anywhere, ever, will fly under rules that easy ever again. Yes, the DC-3 is good for 21 passengers or 4800lb payload up to 200 miles at 175mph, but it can land on a 3500ft grass strip, and who else can do that these days? Thanks to being concentrated in the short-haul feeder airline routes, American DC-3s also get the lion's share of the subsidies for these routes, further bad news for replacement planes that aren't aimed at that difficult market. Is there a solution? The author proceeds to put on one of those helicopter beanie hats, pull his shirt out of his pants, and scream for a bit. Or, untranslated, starts talking about helicopters. So, no, there's no solution except to stop the subsidies and force short haul business travellers back on the train, and that's not going to happen, either, because they might as well drive. 

"The Stormy Life of Ernst Heinkel" A biography of the man behind Heinkel aircraft is out. It explains that all the delays in jet development were down to the Nazis, whom Heinkel always disagreed with about just about everything important. Flight also reads Neville Duke's quickie, Sound Barrier, ghost written by Edward Lanchberry, Laurence Bagley's How to Fly, and Paul Jensen's The Flying Omnibus, which is a collection of thrilling air stories. Following the book review section is an abstract of Bell's talk on "Prospects for Small Turbines," mentioned last week. 

J. C. Barr, "Axial-Flow Compressor Efficiency" an engineer from Power Jets (Research and Development), rebuts the theories of J. M. Stephenson, of Brown University, laid out in an article in the 10 October number. Specifically, his "theory" that the large centrifugal compressor isn't obsolescent, is wrong. Then we need a page, so here's an advertorial for Goodrich's new high altitude pressure suit, and a wind tunnel somewhere. 

"Air, Land, Sea: Inter-Related Problems: The Chairman of London Transport Answers Some Topical Questions" Will London Airport get a subway? At some point, various proposals have been heard. Gatwick already has rail, will it have enough capacity in the future? Yes, with some improvements. Will this or that scheme for faster Customs clearance be implemented? Quite possibly. Is helicopter passenger transport the coming thing? No. Are helicopter landing pads at stations practical? Yes. Do land transport interests have a point about all these air subsidies? It's complicated. Well! Fascinating! 

Silver City Airways is to be allowed to build an airport in Romney Marsh. Group Officer C. M. McAleery, "Mrs. Mac," who has written on Service matters for The Aeroplane for many years, has died. A WRAF in the 1914--18 war who lost her husband in a service accident in 1919, she was on the staff of The Aeroplane until she rejoined the service in 1939, and was living in semi-retirement in Sussex at the age of 58 at the time of her death. (Meaning that she lost her husband at the age of 23, and was just 43 when she left The Aeroplane. Now I'm sad. I shall tell myself that she was one of those women that active service attracts, for whom family is not so important. 

Correspondence has letters on gliding, reminiscing about days long gone, and the usual complaint that someone is doing flying clubs the wrong way. The Industry reports on air cargo services rushing tannoys to Norway, a new brochure from Flight Refuelling, and a nice range of aircraft cables from Callenders, using a new insulating coating, Nypren, replacing boring old Pren. 

Fortune's Wheel introduces the story about the Livonia fire, which was a real lesson fire prevention and safety. We're told a bit more about the origins of the spectacular fold out of "American Tractors and Trailers" that I cut out and included in this package. I've seen the future. specifically, I've seen  its tail gate, far too close, and far too long, climbing over Mount Shasta. The story about whether there is an "Executive Face" is bravely defended, and we are excitedly blurbed abou the "Suburbia Story." All Americans will soon  live in suburbs, so sell to them! 

Business Roundup is mainly about the signs of a recession which have inspired more business pessimism, leading to caution on the business side, and a reflationary budget on the other, as the Eisenhower Administration tries to avoid calling attention to the fact that it got us into this situation by ignoring the warnings, and will get us out of it by reversing course and governing like Democrats. (For safety's sake, then, better talk like Republicans even harder! Surely there's someone who has talked to a Communist once that we can fire!)
 

This is all old news, because we've had months of denial in Newsweek and the same recent business news in The Economist. It is hard to deny that Fortune has prettier pictures! 

Defence and Strategy looks at the "New Look" for Fiscal '53. The Air Force is to have 127 wings, up 12, six of them continental interceptor wings. So the Air Force can breath a sight of relief. The Soviet H-bomb has relieved demands for larger cuts than the ones that we'll get whenever the "New Look" is actually ready to see the light. We're than introduced to the 24(!) Under-Secretaries of Defence, all of whom are very essential and important people, and then it's off to Californ-y-ay with Harry Talbott to patch things up at Hughes, right after he had to liquidate Willow Run. And you thought this job would be easy, Harry! Hughes is the Air Force's most important electronics supplier, and is sole source of the Falcon guided missile, which was to be integrated into the fire control system of the Convair F-102.  The resignation of Simon Ramo and Dean Woolridge to form their own Ramo-Woolridge concern has left Hughes without experienced management capable of leading these complicated electronics projects. 

"Germ Warfare: The Lie That Won" A score or more Air Force officer POWs, "including several colonels," confessed to dropping bacteriological warfare weapons on Korea during the conflict. We all agree that the confessions were made under duress amounting to "brainwashing," and the Pentagon is very embarrassed about it, and various "neutralists" around the world even seem to believe it. The lie won! 

Leaders circles round the "recession"/"confidence"/"reflation" drain for a bit, suggests that this is not the time to be tinkering with tariffs, wonder whether 60 million jobs might not be enough, notice that Barry Goldwater, the junior Senator from Arizona, is a bit of a flake, gets excited about the KKK admitting coloured members in Florida and the Kleinschmidt teleprinter, which promises even more words on the wire about yes there won't be and will be a recession what about Trieste, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and France, here's a new transformer that's smaller than ever! Full page pieces look at the Export-Import Bank, which suffered badly in the last budget, and offers a "Businesslike Antitrust Policy," which is no policy at all, because business doesn't actually like antitrust policies that are good for business.

 

Charles J. V. Murphy, "The U.S. As A Bombing Target" Chuck has been called in from the suburbs (don't worry, because his apprentices pick up the story!) to cover their possible future H-bombing. We get a fascinating view of the Air Situation Board at the Twenty-Sixth Air Division of Eastern Air Defence Command, and the usual discussion about whether proper air and civil defence is counterproductively expensive or not. It probably is, because 150 of an attacking wave of 450 Soviet bombers can expect to get through, and, counting misses and duds, that would cause 11 million casualties and destroy a third of America's industrial capacity with 1951-style bombs. Existing air defences are built up from WWII standards, using WWII-era radars and sixty battalions of WWII-style antiaircraft, plus 25 squadrons of interceptors, few of them all-weather. 

Our radar defences are built around the GE CPS-6B and Bendix FPS-3, both heavy radars that were in prototype at the end of WWII, with an effective range of 200 miles, which gives a  half-hour's warning for the TU-4 and just fifteen minutes for the Type 31, which is unacceptable not even taking into account low-flying sneak bombers and gaps in the 100 station coverage. With a radar station costing $1.5 million and requiring a staff of 400 all included, often located in remote areas to which roads have to be built, providing more and better coverage gets expensive. the Arctic line is barely begun, the radar picket ships we presumably need aren't built, and a "sensing" radar that can determine for itself whether a bogie is hostile or not is just a dream. Bell is working on a "yes/no" radar, which would make an Arctic Distant Early Warning Line more than a fantasy. In the meantime, the fleet of Constellation radar ships is basically a moving "radar line." IFF, which we solved with a transponder on the plane in WWII, has been passed by, and Korea demonstrated that we need something better. Since there are 25,000 planes aloft in North America at any time, the magnitude of the control problem is appalling, and we need a robot computer, which Lincoln Lab and IBM are working on, in the form of the Whirlwind II. I don't imagine you need to hear more about the new generation of supersonic interceptors or the Nike missile. It, like antiaircraft artillery, is "point" defence. The next step is the Bomarc, an "area defence" system with much greater range. 

Fortune visits Allis-Chambers, they of all the ads, and then "The Lush New Suburban Market," which, in the new tradition, is more graphics than words. 

There are currently 10.4 million family units housing 30 million people in American suburbs, based on Fortune's research. "Exactly" 27% is under 14, compared with 21.6% of the rest of the population, which is why they consume a lot --but not "conspicuously. An interesting point that you can kind of see illustrated in the Fortune sketch I've kindly cut out for you, is that the new houses built since the war have been small, single-story structures to keep costs down and get them up faster. This really isn't enough space for growing families, and "the outdoors have been integrated" into family life. Which I think means lawnchairs and cookouts? Fine until it is January in Minneapolis! 

"The Great Livonia Fire" GM's $35 million brand-new brick, steel, and glass automatic transmission joint was the "factory that couldn't burn." How did it happen? A fire in a drip pan full of a rustproofing oil dissolved in solvent, underneath a conveyor belt, 21ft above the floor, caught fire from sparks dripping from a welding operation on the roof. Firefighters could not contain it because they could not keep CO2 on it in sufficient quantity due to having to manhandle bottles and tanks; eventually drip ignited the creosote-soaked floor while the firefighting crew had to evacuate their overwatch position due to heat and fumes. Electricity failed, the lights and blowers (and telephones) 

went out, and smoke began to spread. Flammable material in the roof caught fire. Detroit's fire chief is quoted as saying that he had a bad feeling about it from the time he arrived because "You can't fight a fire if you can't touch it, and we never got a hose on this one." About half the article is actually about GM's successful salvage operation that got the machine tools to the new space rented at Willow Run, where production was resumed just a few days after the fire. In the wake of the fire, the lack of compartmentalisation (firewalls) and sprinklers seem like the most important deficiencies. 

"Farming's Chemical Age" They have insecticides now, but the industry didn't have a good year because there weren't enough bugs. Much of the body of the article is about the wonders of 2,4D, and not bugs. 

And there you go. Some catching up here, since we've heard plenty about the civil defence problem and the suburbs before. But, once again, Fortune has great pictures!