Postblogging Technology, May 1953, I: Happy Times Are Here Again

The Hon. A.

,_. Hall,
_,

England

Dear Cousin:

I write in some hurry as Ronnie is gathering her things so that her husband can do his part in the delivery, a solid twenty minutes depending on the traffic on King Edward. Was that funny? Not? I can't tell. I'm a ball of nerves. It was so much easier off being a dashing aviator when Jim-Jim was born. I try to distract myself by thinking about other things, but I keep being dragged down to the fact that the Commerce Secretary tried to fire the chief of the National Bureau of Standards at the behest of a mail order con artist, and the Administration and its supporters at the newspapers are lining up behind him. This, this is why McCarthy is winning. It sometimes seems like I should seriously consider not going back to the States after my furlough. Or maybe that's "transferrence," or "displacement" in the new psychiatric jargon. I'm scared, cousin!

Your Cousin,

The Dash(ing) Pilot

The Economist, 2 May 1953

Leaders

"On Reading Pravda" The Pravda article on the President's peace proposal is worth reading because it is a statement of the Russian position (well knock me over with a feather!) and also because it shows that the Russians aren't taking Dulles' latest comments undermining the proposal any too seriously. The Economist then does not just extract the article, because they I would know what it was talking about as it proceeded to dance around it for two and a half pages. The Russians aren't just going to withdraw from Eastern Europe, though. I got that! 

"Farming Without Boards" Wouldn't it be nice if you could farm without marketing boards? And also if wishes were pennies and the fountains ran with wine and the cloud were lemon drops? Sorry, trying to inject a note of seriousness into The Economist's pie-in-the-sky fantasies.

"New Reign in Iraq" Iraq's new King probably isn't going to amount to much. But it is definitely not the British's fault! British officials are doing their best, and the Iraqi longing for a dictator like Naguib just goes to show. 

"Cat and Mouse Truce"  Peace talks are back on but there isn't an armistice yet and it is all the Reds' fault, probably because they want to use it to settle the Formosa situation. 

"Self-Improvement and the State" The Ministry of Education was going to cut adult education funding by 10% until the Prime Minister  stepped in. The Economist explains why that was a good idea, actually. (Too many middle class people taking courses at the Workers' Educational Associations, and that's bad.)

Notes

Winston Churchill has accepted a Knight of the Garter, the Transport Bill was repealed the wrong way, Labour had a meeting about the way forward, NATO will have one of theirs soon. The Economist figures the Communists are going to invade Laos next on account of they are actually invading it right now. Good job! Most of the Note is about how since the Viet Minh are invading Laos because they can't break into the Red River Delta, they're going to invade or at least intimidate Siam an Cambodia, too. Because wining a war is like painting a big fence. You get one can of paint, throw it all over the fence, and give up because it is too much work to go get another can. The Conservative Party's 1922 Committee is keen to reform coal back to the way it was in 1922. Get stuffed says the Government, which does occasionally disagree with the 1922s, because it is working just fine. That was our point, says the Twenty-Twos! The House had a nice argument over whether the tax cuts will be inflationary, just how much the Government is at fault for the fall in production in 1952, and how much it will be the governments fault if production doesn't increase in 1953, causing the End of Days. The Economist argues that it won't be, because those horrible trade unions are asking for wage increases again. The outcome of the Sunderland byelection will be very significant, as is the fact that Pravda is linking peace to the supply of consumer goods. Stalin is really dead, figuratively and literally, various countries have better public education than others, people trade with Communists, it has to be admitted that this is not the right time to complain about maternity allowances, the scheme for income tax on book royalties seems okay, the Gaullist setback in the French legislative elections probably means that Pinay will form a new government, and something is keeping the European Coal and Steel Community, never mind the United States of Europe.

From The Economist of 1853 comes a complaint that there is too much politicking over the annual estimates since the Income Tax act expired in 1851, and isn't Gladstone great for putting together a seven-year budget? I am guessing that the issue was having to set the rates on whatever taxes they were levying every year?

Letters 

Cotton manufacturer J. W. F. Morton is very upset with the new excise tax on cotton cloth that replaces the Utility scheme because it is effectively a tax on quality. Frances Boyd explains why the Central African Federation is a mistake and should be replaced by "one European and two African" states alongside various economic and land ownership reforms as will make it possible for Africans to govern themselves. L. T. Higgins explains why the Area Boards of the British Electricity Authority discriminate in favor of the "low-load" customer in a way that somehow makes customers who don't use that much electricity into the enemies of electricity for all. (They probably draw all their power at peak times, which makes them worse than users with a heavier, but steady draw.) 

Books

William Ashworth's Contracts and Finance is the latest volume in the History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Civil Series is a very worthy book, but too kind to the Treasury.Percy Craddock's Recollections of the Oxford Union is also worthy. Gerald Reitlinger's The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939--1945 brings together much information about the "Final Solution," apportions blame as between various Nazis, including the odiously unpunished Karl Wolff, and explains that the main reason that the Final Solution failed was that the Nazi regime was so inept. The Structure and Capacity of Australian Manufacturing Industries is a Domesday Book for Australia, it says in the subtitle. Oswald Hickson and his colleague, P. F. Castor-Ruck absolutely dare you to make fun of their names in the introduction to their The Law of Libel and Slander.

American Survey

"Looking Eastward" The American Senate has been roiled by Senator Bridges' attempt to rouse the American public over Red mistreatment of UN PoWs, while Senator Byrd has tried to involve General MacArthur in the ammunition "scandal," causing the General to raise and call with suggestions that America threaten to level China's industry and cut the Manchurian railways as a way of putting pressure on the armistice negotiators. Senator Taft suggested wrapping up the whole of the Far East in one bow in way of closing the armistice talks. The good news is that Foster Dulles, no stranger to nutty talk, has squelched the grand performers of the Senate. The Administration's plan is that we're going to sign a ceasefire, and once no more Americans or anyone else is dying in Korea, we can have all the debates and negotiations we like. Then, in a strange non sequitur, The Economist explains why the District of Columbia should get the status of a state so that it can have as many representatives in Congress as assorted other states with much less than 900,000 people.  Oh, wait, it's not a non-sequitur, it is the next Leader, badly set off. And being The Economist, the main drift of the piece is that as long as DC isn't a state, Congress should do better by sustaining its spending considering that most of its property tax base is Federal property and exempt, and the Congressional grant in aid is inadequate. It also explains the real problem that is making this so hard. (Racism: Too many coloured people in DC.) 

American Notes

"Shadow Chiefs of Staff" Surprisingly enough, not about Sherman Adams running the country while the President plays golf and Foster Dulles traps any victim in sight and talks at him for  hours about the horrors of Communism instead of doing any real work. Instead, it is about how Senator Taft is upset at the Joint Chiefs for opposing his peace-through-intercontinental-atomic-war platform, and is trying to secure a better staff by having their successors put through Congressional hearings and confirmation. Nelson Rockefeller is said to have a better idea, which I can believe, because how could anything be worse? 

"Iron Curtain or Golden Door" The President has told Congress to get serious about fixing the McCarran Act so that American can admit 240,000 European refugees in the next two years to cure overcrowding in Europe and address Communist propaganda. Senator Watkins of Utah will take up the job in the best way he knows how, which is absolutely avoiding hearings and instead tinkering with the fine print to turn manholes into double doors. Steel production is still up to supply the auto boom, Congress is fighting bitterly over the zeroing out of all federal housing subsidies for low cost housing, one of the main means by which the Republican caucus managed to extract their $700 million spending cut, which the President seems to support. The Subversive Activities Board has condemned the Communist Party, no surprise, and come out with a new security investigation process in which people not passed for government positions are not labelled subversives, injuring their social standard, but also one in which there is no appeal, which is bad. 

The World Overseas

"The Assembly in Perspective" We look back at the seventh session of the UN General Assembly. What just happened? Do you remember? 

"The Question of Gas" From Our Ottawa Correspondent

So, yes, The Economist does make it easy sometimes. Actually, this is about attempts to link up the natural gas fields of northern Alberta and British Columbia with the south and especially the American Pacific Northwest by pipelines, and of eastern Canada with the southern and central Albertan fields, because the more obvious approach of sending western Canadian gas to the Midwest and Pennsylvania gas to eastern Canada has been scuttled by no-rhyme-nor-reason American politics, as exemplified by the Federal Power Commission, which can't even get the St. Lawrence Seaway done. Once the gas spigot is opened, it cannot be closed, so pipelines to the Midwest would be giving away a precious Canadian resource, unlike in British Columbia, because who cares what happens over the Rockies, anyway? Also, Pennsylvania is running short. Nigerian opinions about things are very heated, especially amongst students, some additional details of the troubles at the ECSC are given, the likelihood of the Viet Minh adding Siam to their list of enemies is discussed, the CDU convention in Hamburg was a triumph for Dr. Adenauer and a blow against a neutralised Germany, and the British decision to stay out of the renewed International Wheat Agreement is discussed. It's because the British are upset at US price supports and wants to "break up the cartel" and "return to the free market." Canada thinks that Britain needs to pull its head out of you know where.  
 

The Business World

"Gilt-Edged and The Deficit" The only way to avoid inflationary pressures from the deficit is a vast issue of gilt-edged bonds, the market says. The British rentier will buy them with  "genuine savings" out of pure patriotism and so mop up the excess money, whereas borrowings from the banks are not "real" savings and increase the money supply. Also, the issue of breweries and "tied" public houses which have to serve their beer, comes up again. 

Business Notes

Financial items aside, the Anglo-American debate over the "eventual airworthiness of the Comet III" has become increasingly heated. Pan Am will receive its first Comet IIIs in 1956, and would have liked a certificate of airworthiness by last week. The British view is that the case is hopeless, and point out that American designs are routinely given certificates in spite of features, particularly in terms of fire protection, that would never be permitted in British designs. 

In textiles and related news, new fibres, notably ICI's terylene and ardil, dominate this year's British Industries Fair. Nylon might be old news, but the amount spun has tripled and rayon production is at new highs. It is easy for ICI to advertise, as its profits are up again, but the small mills are upset at the expense of advertising at the Fair. Grow up, says The Economist. Film policy is being discussed, the Coal Board started borrowing for capital investment last year through the Ministry of Fuel. Because it didn't borrow more than it could service under Labour, the fact that it now has a deficit is good, actually. Petroleum has been decontrolled and the price has fallen. "The new Vickers-Armstrong fighter has been ordered in substantial numbers for the Navy." Britain is "the odd man out" on the wheat agreement because no other countries have their heads stuck their you know where. The price of copper is down. Arcane revisions are being made in the "Freight Index," which is a basket of statistics that are apparently the only way of determining how much freight is being carried for how much by British freighters. 

Leaders

"Unsure Foundation" The Government has not been doing a very good job of promoting civil aviation, Flight suggested a few months ago, it reminds us. Now it returns to the subject and says that while there has been some progress, it hasn't been doing enough to promote airliner development or to train a new generation of pilots through the various RAF reserve schemes that are so numerous and confusing ("University Air Squadrons"???) that Uncle George started making jokes about they mainly exist to argue about which hats they get to wear. (Just in case you were at a loss about what that joke was about.) Flight is usually cryptically commenting on some new policy departure when it talks like this. I hope the Britannia hasn't been cancelled! 

From All Quarters

Further details of Nato orders of British jet fighters show a further order for 450 Hunters at $140 million, deliveries to start in June of next year, all to the RAF as far as we now know, although the Americans, as buyers, have the right to allocate them to other Nato air forces. The Swift order, which has not attracted American dollars, is for 250 Swifts at £25 million, assuming that a Swift costs as much as a Hunter, £110,000 each. These will all go to the RAF, and specifically Fighter Command, although some are allocated to Nato. Another $13 million Nato order for Hawker Sea Hawks indicates that they costs about £40,000 each. Belgium and Holland will produce further Hunters and Avons under license. The French offshore Mystere IV order runs to $170 million, counting orders for both the fighter and the ground support version. Neither the speculated Venom nor Javelin orders have materailised, although Flight still has hopes for the Javelin. The Italians will produce home-assembled F-86Ds instead, "to alleviate unemployment." Further details of the Nato "infrastructure programme" of  34 new airfields in Germany and 124 elsewhere, including that they will cost £250 million as part of a larger £685 million programme that includes sundry other kinds of facilities including radar stations, headquarters and naval bases. Some ten thousand miles of underground piping will provide secure refuelling. It's not extravagance! 

General Clark's headquarters has issued a offer of a £19,000 for any Red aircrew deserting in a modern Russian fighter. Time has a nice article about flying the X-3, which makes it sound quite exciting. 

"A Hastings Through the Iron Curtain" The seven British civil detainees from Korea were handed over to an RAF Hastings in Moscow and flown home this week. Much has been said about the detainnees in the press, and it was time for someone to speak up for the airplane. Exciting news? Russians are very, very confused about navigation tracks in "knots," until they're explained as "nautical miles per hour." 

Harold King, "Aden Protectorate Support Flight" Technically an unsigned article with the weight of Flight behind it, it is mostly devoted to that time that one base commander got shot by accident while "hunting monkeys" up in the hills in the dark and had to be flown out for surgery. Because they have planes! (And the ambulance that had to drive him out of the hill country.) Apart from flying drunks from Aden to Khartoum for some open chest surgery, the Flight also has Vampires to drop bombs on recalcitrant hill chiefs, which I'm sure will work out as well as dropping bombs on recalcitrant hill chiefs always does.   

Here and There reports that the American Aircraft Corporation has withdrawn from the London-Christchurch race after its chief executive killed himself with a  Spitfire 24. The Israeli Air Force has received another 4 P-51s from Swedish stocks. 

"Conversion to Comets" by "A Transport Pilot"  It sounds very exciting. CAB is on about the climb out of the runway, but I can't  help being struck by the specification of a takeoff speed of 105kn, maximum allowed takeoff weight  of 105,000lbs, minimum landing weight on abort of 75,000lbs with a requirement of 1500ft of runway clear for the landing. From takeoff initial climb is at 5 degrees for maximum rate of gain and obstacle avoidance, even if acceleration to cruising altitude is fast. At cruise, the pilot is told to take feet off rudder to avoid accidental or reflexive adjustments that might tear the rudder off at high speed. Course changes are to be made with aileron only except in emergencies. Speaking of which, controls are "feelless," although there is initial stickiness from a spring (basically) on the hydraulic Servodynes that actuate the controls. This, combined with the revealed uselessness of the artificial horizon and the rapid loss of speed from as little as 5 degrees pitch means that the pilot needs to keep an eye on alternative measurements of pitch  the Zero Reader (insensitive) and vertical speed indicator. Fortunately, engine out handling is good and at least pulling out of an overshoot doesn't red line the engine. Filling out the page is notice of the European Ignition Conference, sponsored by Lodge Plugs.  

"Education by Simulation" Comet ground maintenance crew are learning their jobs on a training rig at Hatfield because there are no Comets to practice on yet. Speaking of which, the next article explains just how fast "Comet Turnaround" is, while the next one celebrates BOAC's achievement in the first year of Comet operations. 

"Comet Engineering" The Comet has been engineered to withstand extremes of temperature from the stratospheric extreme of -73 degrees to the Persian Gulf to achieve worldwide service, and is pressurised to 8 1/2 lbs per square inch to provide passenger comfort at 40,000ft, in spite of the disastrous consequences of a structural or window failure at that altitude. Fortunately the light-weight Reduxed structure can be used with confidence due to de Havilland's long experience with military aircraft. There has only been one, inconsequential, failure of a Reduxed joint in a Comet structure this year. Flaps are getting quite the kicking from ground debris, though. Long term commercial service is also an unprecedented test for gas turbines. CAA is concerned with the Comet's two inward-opening doors, because they tend to obstruct orderly evacuation, while Flight points out that having two doors, one for crew, one for passengers, is just redundant and costs weight, showing de Havilland's inexperience with airliner design. The CAA is also concerned with the single-pane cockpit windows. No problems with "tiredness" have been seen in the enormously strong structure so far in spite of continuing stresses. The Civil Ghost engines have not been without their teething pains, but seem good enough for the job, at least until the Avon comes along. It might burn a lot of gas, but it saves on maintenance. Landing gear, tires, and the powered nosewheel steering gear have all performed adequately. The solution to icy runways and lack of stopping power is to hope that there's a solution soon and in the mean time install the strongest brakes available. Control is hydraulic, by Lockheed, acting at 2500lb pressure, only one hydraulic fluid approved so far. The servodynes are fine. Electrics are provided by three engine alternators, rectified to a 28v supply by selenium rectifiers, teething problems with overloaded alternators  have been fixed. The navigation suite includes the Sperry Zero Reader, the Smiths SEP 1 autopilot, a Rebecca radio navigation fit that hopefully will be overtaken by something better soon, and a no DME being up to snuff yet in terms of reliability and weight. 

A. J. M. Majendie, "Civil Jet Operations: BOAC's Comet Experience" Captain Majendie of BOAC gave a lecture to the RAeS last week on the subject, here extracted. It is interesting but a bit technical and "A Transport Pilot" has already given the lay man's view, above. 

Civil Aviation

CAA's delay of Comet III airworthiness certification is becoming increasingly sticky for the Pan Am contract with De Havilland. BEA's 27 Vikings were briefly grounded this weekend after some trouble with seat rivets. France's UAT is now operating two Comet Is on services to Dakar and Casablanca. Eastern Airways' orders for Super-Constellations brings total orders to 111 aircraft on top of the 210 Connies already built. BEA's introduction of Viscounts on several routes has allowed it to put Ambassadors on others.

Correspondence

C. D. Carmicheal of Napier explains why diesel and other heavy oils are the future of turbine aviation notwithstanding their poor performance at extreme temperatures. A. W. Jessie tells a pointless story about flying Fox Moths in 1936. Morris Catherwood puts in an early entry for "dumbest letter of the year" with advocacy for wing tip tanks on the Rapide replacement. 

      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

The Economist, 9 May 1953

Leaders

The first leader is a scolding about "wage restraint.' The Amalgamated Engineering Union is asking for too much money and too much time off, and it is literally the  most important thing to happen this week. Another pointless Leader looks at attempts to foster "Links with Latin America." 

"Mr. Dulles and the Arabs" The tiny little car that carries Foster Dulles and an unlimited number of his closest friends is off to the Middle East. (If you've ever heard a calliope, you can whistle the theme music to yourself as you read.) Arab countries can hope that President Eisenhower will abandon the Truman Administration policy of giving Israel "[A] Benjamin's portion of all of its official aid to the Middle East." But mainly it is about doing something for the Arab refugees without doing the one something that will actually help, giving them their land back.

"Hearing the African" Specifically, the Africans who are in favour of the Central African Federation. Why don't we listen to them more, and those nasty Labour MPs less? Perhaps later we can send a committee of MPs to talk to the Africans who oppose it, as long as it doesn't lead to unpleasant scenes due to Africans assuming that we are going to pay attention to them. 

"Mink to Beaver Lamb" The occasion of the annual Hudson's Bay Auction is an opportunity to meditate on London's role as the centre of the world fur market, which it has taken back from New York, and enhanced at the expense of Leipzig. Leipzig industry used to have an effective monopoly on dressing furs for sale, but the skills and even laboratory science of the Leipzig industry had to find a new home when the Jews drove the Nazis out. 

Notes of the Week

"The Battle of Laos" The fighting in Laos seems important, but it is a faraway country of which we know very little, and it is not as though we can be bothered to look it up, and Cambodia and Siam have made fusses about it, and the thought that the Viet Minh are avoiding further clashes with the Red River Delta protective cordon is reassuring, so we'll explain the international implications and the horribleness of Communism instead of making the slightest effort to understand the Hundred Kingdoms. 

"The Eisenhower Way" The Atlantic leaders  have stopped planning for the "moment of maximum danger," because, let's face it, it's too expensive to prepare to fight a modern war and still deliver tax cuts and high interest rates. Also, no-one really believes that war is just around the corner. And that's as good a reason as any to cut defence spending and defence aid. Looking back we shouldn't criticise Attlee and Truman too much for the effort they made to get ready for war. They couldn't have known better! Anyway, defence spending cuts is the Eisenhower way.

"The General Without Party" A longer look at the results of the disastrous Gaullist showing in municipal and regional elections, which has led to the RPF, the Gaullist party, to stop operating as a party at the regional and municipal levels that seems to boil down to a "Fare thee well" to General de Gaulle and a gratuitous observation to the effect that it strengthens the Communists. De Gaulle isn't gone, and to the extent he's gone, Ronnie says, it is because the Communists are strong. 

"Lords and Commons" The Transport Bill repeal ran into trouble in the Lords, where its Labour architects now sit, and they sent down some amendments to the Bill, some (all?) of which were quite sensible. The government then used "the guillotine" to cut off debate on the amendments from the Lords, leading to the important question, which isn't whether the Transport Bill was a bad idea (don't worry; it's fine that Britain's main transportation system is constantly going broke!) but whether there was a constitutional crisis. Labour is usually against the Lords existing at all, so there was a great opportunity for them to go like a two-headed dog and chase the ball in both directions, and for The Economist to disapprove of all this unseemly behaviour, and avoid the whole question of whether  British rails can continue as they are. 

"350,000 Houses" Housing starts are currently going at a rate of 350,000 a year, allowing Conservative commentators to crow that their ridiculed plan for 300,000 houses is overshooting the mark. This is probably true, and it hasn't been done at the expense of the poor, in that council houses are up by 10,000 over last year, which is why The Economist says that we should declare victory and call it a day, because all those housing subsidies are too expensive. 

"West Indian Teamwork" The West Indies Federation is that much closer. 

"Full Circle at Panmunjom" The Reds have given up on forced repatriation, and an armistice is at  hand, but that doesn't mean that we can't deliver a parting insult at the Red negotiators and defend General Harrison against the critics who say that he is no diplomat, which he is not. Apparently you dont' need to be a negotiator if your only job is to stand pat until the other guy cracks. Also, European journalists are worried that the European public has lost interest in European unity because everyone keeps talking and talking and nothing seems to happen and who can even stay awa--- I'm sorry, I nodded off there. 

"Soviet Germany Needs Food" The partial failure of the last harvest has left East Germany so short of food that two million of them have lost their ration card and will have to buy all their food. "Thus the Communist planner mops up the surplus purchasing power arising out of the shortage of food and consumer goods." Russia will need to send food to East Germany instead of importing German food, which The Economist sees in terms of Moscow's desire to "rein in" the East German government. 

"Full Employment and Productivity" Clement Attlee recently said that the decline in productivity and full employment since 1951 show that the two are linked. On the contrary, says The Economist, waving at "such studies as have been done," show that The Economist has always been right to think that when the threat of the sack is hanging over employees, they are more productive. A fascinating Note on leasehold reform follows.

"The Colour Bar"   Parliament debated the "colour bar" --somewhere. Labour had one position, the Conservatives had another. The Conservatives brought up the racial barriers imposed by unions composed of emigrant British labour in the central African mines, while the Conservatives were silenced in their turn by references to settlers there discriminating against educated Africans. (The worst sin of all is, as always, inconveniencing a subscriber to the magazine." So I guess the debate was about Central Africa, and not the "colour bar" at home in Britain. But it sure seems like The Economist is embarrassed by something. 

"Economics Under Dr. Malan" On the one hand, the sweeping Nationalist victory is bad news because apartheid means that South African employers will have to pay white workers too much and will be billed for the cost of Coloured workers' dormitories. On the other hand, there's enough money for tax cuts, and let's keep our eyes on the important things. 

"Ballots and Bullets in Tunisia "The tragedy of French rule in Tunisia is---" This is going to be good! It's that it is divided, you see. Paris just wants to get the heck out, but the colonists can't see a future where they're not oppressing the locals, and the military wants to stay because, you know, strategy and stuff like that. Ninety percent of native Tunisians just boycotted the election that was held to put a "moderate," by which is meant, "pro-French" group of politicians in power, and there are "hints" that terrorism will increase in the future, for which the French have to share "part of the blame." Yes, indeed, the terrorism against the French occupation of Tunisia is partially France's fault! The Economist faults the French for not cracking down half as hard against the assassins of Tunisian moderate leaders as when French soldiers are killed.

"Help for the Backward" Twenty-three percent of the latest national service call-up was illiterate by the standards of the exams, which were a bit more elaborate than just checking to see if the conscripts could read.  This is the best way to tell just how many modern youths are "backwards" after years of disrupted education during the war, or any of the other causes always being singled out (large classes, modern education, not enough spanking, movies, bubble gum, penny dreadfuls). Anyway, the army promises to teach them to read, and says that it is successful 97.7% of the time, so the schools should take note of the army's secret, whatever it might be. 

From The Economist of 1953, "Masters and Men," It used to be that legislation for regulating relations between employers and workers was directed at keeping the workforce in dependence, and that was bad. However, now the shoe is on the other foot, and that's bad, too, and we should stop that. Never change, Economist!

Letters

Philip S. Mumford writes from Nairobi to explain the settlers' view of the Mau-Mau's, or maybe he is just copying out the ending of Heart of Darkness as a handwriting exercise. It's hard to tell. Randolph Gierson writes to point out that the "hundreds of millions of pounds" of installations in the Canal Zone that the British will have to hand over to the Egyptians were built at the Egyptian expense in the first place. It was a difficult political case to make in Cairo in the Thirties, but it was made precisely so that the British would not have a claim on the Zone that they would never give up. As now! Ronald Hope finds that The Economist's approach to "Self-Improvement and the State is a bit too economising. 

Books

Basil Liddell Hart's The Rommel Papers is about how Hitler's favourite general was a military genius who fought a clean and chivalrous war in North Africa and also said something nice about Basil Liddell Hart once. The reviewer likes Liddell Hart a lot more than I do. C. R. Fay's Round About Industrial Britain, 1830--1860 was originally delivered as a series of lectures at the University of Toronto, or, actually, in fact, a series of essays on individual industrial towns thrown together by local historians which share technological change as the only common theme. I'm struck by the observation that most economic histories treat this subject "unintelligibly," which, as Ronnie is always pointing out, is a fair cop until you've read a description of a turboprop transmission in Flight. The pinions unrack the torquemeter! Anyway, pointless waste of effort, kind of like going to a lecture in Toronto about some guy's rambles around Britain looking at industrial antiquities. Lord Jowitt's The Strange Case of Alger Hiss is subtitled "American Dreyfuss Case." In the sense that it is very controversial and arouses strong passions, you see. Jowett thinks that the case was not proven, and that the trial was flawed. The Economist is not convinced that you can draw that kind of conclusion after dismissing evidence that would not have been admitted under English rules. Of course it does. Harold Ingham's history of Hongkong is a credit to the Colonial Office, which has commissioned a whole series on major colonies. (Or maybe all of them. Looking forward to the book about Pitcairn Island!) J. M. Tanner's Prospects in Psychiatric Research is a good look at the Mental Health Research Fund, which has a tremendous job both in terms of determining what deserves funding across so many fields, and in terms of the huge scale of the mental health problem. And publicity might be good for the continuing stigma associated with mental health problems. 

American Survey

"The First Hundred Days" Let's see: Joe McCarthy is running the Administration and Bob Taft is trying to get it back. The President has been to the hospital for "flu," the Secretary of State, Greatest Republican Statesman Of His Generation, keeps sticking his foot in his mouth and threatening his press people with being fired for  homosexuality or accusing them of profanity. The Defence Secretary wants us to know that he is doing this for the little people, to include accidentally cancelling a scheduled press junket and defending us from the Russians by cutting the defence budget. The Commerce Secretary has tried to fire the head of the National Bureau of Standards, the press secretary says we shouldn't expect press conferences, the Air Force Secretary isn't going to let a bit of contract fixing away back in WWI get in the way of contract fixing now, and the Treasury Secretary has decided that a deficit with tax cuts is the only way back to sound finance. I'm sure I've missed some. Besides, Roosevelt got a lot done in his first hundred days, too!

"3D Lifeline?" Maybe 3D will save the movie business, but drive-ins and reruns on television are the better bet. 

American Notes

Europe isn't getting as many guns as promised, but Indo-China is, with an emergency lift of supplies going to Laos. Also, Nato is getting $250 million for "special weapon planning," which sure sounds like giving Nato allies some kind of access to the atom bomb. The President has also promised that defence spending would rise to a "plateau" and stay there, rather than a "peak" in the critical year of 1954. So the $8.5 billion cut in defence from Truman's planned $72.9 billion will make us stronger in the long run! Cuts in later programme years will make us stronger still, and in celebration of that, no more 143 group air force. Also, the Administration is still fighting with the all-powerful Representative Richard Simpson of Pennsylvania over tariffs. Or maybe not fighting, since Dulles says that he might back the Simpson act next year, and Sinclair Weeks says that "he is at heart a tariff man." 

"Professor Lattimore's Rights" Owen Lattimore stood next to a Red that one time, so he has no rights. Next question? The "top Communist agent" in America, says McCarthy, is up for perjury because he slipped up on some of Senator McCarran's trick questions in the internal security hearings. Unfortunately, that commie symp pinko Judge Luther Youngdahl has heard the perjury charges and says no can do, at least until the Government tells him what they're actually charging him for in the two charges he didn't throw out. 

The Treasury's 30 year 3.5% bond was over-subscribed six times, with $1.08 billion eventually issued, "one of the major airlines" has introduced a "club-in-the-sky" scheduled daily fight from New York to Chicago for men only, with stewardesses serving steak, pipes and cigars allowed, and "slippers and closing market quotations" provided by the airline. On arrival, they will find a city with 1.36 million TV sets compared with 1.32 million telephones and 1.26 million bathtubs. Americans sure like their TV!

 The World Overseas

"The Upheaval in Pakistan" The duly elected government with the confidence of the Assembly has been dismissed by the Governor General and good riddance, they weren't doing a very good job, says The Economist, although it is surprised that Mohammed Ali will be the next Prime Minister, and not Northwest Frontier chief Qayum Khan, who will have to settle for being Food and Agriculture Minister, where he will surely set things right. They'll have to let another East Pakistani into the government, but they should be able to find a complaisant one, and then they can get on with muzzling the mullahs and making nice with India. 

Destalinisation continues in Moscow, Yoshida's bare victory in Japan is a repudiation of militarism, notwithstanding clumsy American offers of aid, Britain can't find an ambassador to Italy who can compete wit Clair Luce and shouldn't try, because those Italians don't like us very much for some reason, probably Trieste.

"Holland After the Flood" Only eight of the 67 major gaps in Holland's flood defences are still unplugged. There are still extensive inundations, but attention is already turning to new systems of dykes. Long term economic damage has proven much less than feared, with most of the  harvest saved and Holland's longstanding "structural" unemployment falling, with some thought that the dramatic demonstration of what some public works can do, will catalyze a more generous anti-unemployment policy. German ratification of the European Defence Community has become an issue of "unbelievable constitutional complexity" and may lead to a snap election. 

The Business World

"Prefabs for Export" British exports of prefabricated concrete homes were highlighted at the British Industries Fair. The total trade has risen from £80.000 in 1949 to £8 million. Homes with 680, 920, 948 and 1000 square feet were on show, costing between £2100 and £2300. I'm at a loss as to what the market for "live in 680 square feet instead of 1000 and save £200" is. Some technical details about erection and material follow. The homes are light for shipping and may accommodate local material, but a premium is placed on the material to be exported, which include both aluminum frames and miracle substances that are termine-proof, warm, and insulated in spite of being lighter than anything domestic. Finally, it will be noticed that the £8  million figure includes a lot of hon-homes houses for schools, hospitals, telephone exchanges, and even warehouses. 

It looks like the British government is not getting the £620 million in American defence aid originally budgeted, although how much it will get is unclear. The Board of Trade has now removed the last price controls, it would suddenly appear as though there is too much British steel on the market, copper is down, Japan still needs an adjustment in its favour to trade in the sterling bloc, mainly because it is restocking raw materials from the bloc, Britain is having trade talks with Brazil, the Americans are still fighting the rubber scheme, coal delivery prices might soon vary by region across Britain mainly because of the cost of moving higher quality coal grades, rice is decontrolled, textiles are up. 

"Atomic Power in Cumberland" There isn't enough plutonium being made to meet demand, and atomic power plants have long been a goal. They would have to operate at much higher temperatures than existing atomic piles to produce commercial-grade steam, and there is much to learn about how materials would behave in such a regime, but it looks like we're going to give it a go. 

"The Comet Crash" BOAC doesn't have a lot of crashes, so the loss of a Comet at Karachi is even bigger news than a regular airline crash, and certainly bigger news than a nonsked crash. (Do those even happen? And, if so, does anyone get hurt besides GIs on their way to and from Korea?) The question of the moment is whether it was the monsoon winds that caused the crash, or a lightning strike. It is important, The Economist points out, to realise that the Comet's high speed approaches and departures from the runway make it safer in weather, since it gets through the system faster. Yes, I don't think that's what the CAB is going to say!

On review of my work-flow process, as they say in the advertorials, it would appear that I have jumped over the 8 May issue in favour of the 15 May, but one is as good as the other, I say. Just to be safe, I have included clippings from the 8 May issue, mainly on account of the short article about helicopters and the Kitimat-Kemano project made me nostalgic. Without context I imagine that they will be very confusing, but when Uncle George gets hold of this he will be enormously satisfied by the cheeky blurb under the picture of the B-47 below, and it is all worth it in the end, I say. 

Leaders

"Gnat for Nato" Flight thinks that the Folland Gnat is the perfect plane for Nato. Also, a gnomic comment about how longer training periods allow the  material to be absorbed more readily than intense, short ones, which is probably saying something about something that you'd have to be at Flight's editorial offices to understand. 

"Olympus-Canberra at 63,668ft" That's the promised new world height record, set by Walter Gibbs beating John Cunningham by 7.1%. Four of five British  height records have now been set by Bristol engines. 

From All Quarters

Canberras will be used to convey film of the Coronation around the Commonwealth, with a direct flight London to Montreal paid for by the CBC. CBS will settle for a chartered BOAC Stratoliner. The War Office is said to be buying 100 helicopters for air observation post duties. Venezuela has  just received its first four Canberras. Everyone should visit the British exhibit at the Canadian International Trade Fair in Toronto. Major Christopher Draper, 61, who flew an Auster Autocrat under all fourteen London Thames bridges at lunch time on Tuesday, was "bidding farewell to forty years of flying" and is also a bit browned off by having been on the dole for fourteen months. It probably wasn't dangerous to anyone but the pilot and his photographer passenger, and Flight wags a finger at the joyless finks who called the police. 

Here and There 

 

Six USAF Fairchild Packets are flying reinforcements and supplies into Laos, and will be followed by more. English Electric is said to be building a "delta-winged" fighter. Norway's air force will get three new squadrons of F-84s soon. Thanks! 

Silver City Airways gets some free publicity as Flight rides along on their Gatwick-Le Tournay high season service. 

"Avon Testing"Standard Motor Company is producing Avon engines for the RAF in the national emergency that is now cancelled in favour of tax cuts. As part of that, they have to have a testing facility, and past partner Heenan and Froude has installed "Avon thrust cradles" in the buildings and spaces previously occupied by Bristol Hercules thrust cradles. These consist of a, well, cradle that takes the engine with  pull rods that distend until they balance the engine thrust, with a remote measurement system consisting of a constrained pendulum in a control room. The article goes on to explore the exhaust and fuel system, but those are even less interesting. 

Flight saw a neat television show about the taking of Iwo Jima last night. Flight tells you about it. BEA has been experimenting with Decca as a navigation system for radar, and has  now added Raydist, by the Hastings Instrument Corporation of Hampton, Virginia, which works somewhat like Decca, but as a landing rather than a navigation aid. The Avon Comet (Comet 2 "development aircraft") has made a 478mph direct London-Cairo flight, which is pretty impressive, if not officially homologued. 

Aircraft Intelligence reports that Lockheed is working on a light fighter and a delta-winged fighter; Grumman's S2F-1 piston-engined search and strike aircraft is in quantity production. Prototype construction of SNCASE's promising jet transport, the Caravelle, will start next year. 

"Visitor from France" Flight went to see the prototype Breguet 960 Vultur search-and-strike carrier aircraft, which can take either the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba or Rolls Royce Nene engines, which is in license production in France. The Mamba is a very small installation for the Breguet, but seems adequate to give it good performance. Then, after some "hat-"related stuff concerning training schools for the RAFVR, it is off to the British Industries Fair, same as The Engineer, only to look at cute aeronautical gadgets instead of the latest machine tools. Rolls Royce has a sectioned Derwent signed "Derwent for Industry," so that's hopeful and interesting, and there's a display on the promising future of titanium, tools, nuts and bolts, paint and dope, lights, instrument dials (glowing and non-glowing), ball bearings, gaskets, anti-rust compound, and such. 

A symposium on "Medical Aspects of Aviation" is reported on at length. 

Correspondence

Correspondents differ on the subject of measuring by the kilometer versus the nautical mile, both are useful map sections (it being 10,000km from the North Pole to the equator and 60 nautical miles to the degree of latitude). J. M. Bruce tells a pointless story about some planes he saw in the war. J. L. Watkins of Trans-Australian Airlines doubts an article claiming that air fares could be lower than Trans-Australian airlines.  

"Views on Ignition" The last time I was paying attention to disgusting old spark plugs (no more of that, please, we're jet pilots now!), Bendix was on about the manifold advantages of low tension rigs. What's up in Europe? Not much, as Europeans are more interested in lead attack resistance and making fun of dubious American innovations like leaving the secondary condensor out of the magneto.

Aeronautics, Inc., wants you to know that they have spare parts, while the IATA wants to talk helicopters. Can they be used as commercial transports? Is there a future for rental helicopters? How big should heliports be? 

Civil Aviation

SAS's third polar express will be to Tokyo. The Vickers Viking has been withdrawn to investigate fatigue failures. C. R. Smith of American Airlines tells American builders to get on with building a worthwhile turboliner. Before they were shut down for being con artists, Miles Aircraft spun off F. G. Miles, Limited, which is absolutely on the up and up, and just to prove it they are building gliders with plastic wings. Look, I find glider pilots as irritating as the next man, but that doesn't mean that it is okay to actively try to kill them! (But if you are looking to have fewer glider pilots in your life, it is a phenolic, asbestos-impregnated product called "Durestos.") 

Business Roundup

"The machine-like determination with which the Russians are pressing their peace offensive" gives the Eisenhower Administration no choice but to surrender and cut taxes. This has "raised anew" questions about America's business outlook" if the cold war ends and defence spending is cut back from, say, $60 to $30 billion. No need to worry about that, because inertia will keep it at around $50 billion, and the 1954 Truman peak of $60 billion was never practical, anyway. Since the boom is likely to push tax revenues up to $70 billion, there is plenty of room for tax cuts within a balanced budget. Will the boom continue? Well, inventories are up, but so are sales. "Each month seems to bring new good news about business." Oh, sure, spending is down a few points, businessmen are pessimistic, stocks are down, but who worries? By the way, inventory on car lots is really high, dealers will have to sell 100,000 more cars than in March to clear them, and interest rates are up, with the usual Democratic and Wall Street broker voices saying that they are "deflationary," but who worries? When has a Republican Administration ever presided over a depression before?

Fortune's Wheel is excited about this month's air conditioning story. Only in America could a whole new industry just spring up overnight, and air conditioning sure is springing! Speaking of America, a Brookings Institute report recently pointed out that big business America is competitive and brings us new products like synthetic glycerin. So stop worrying that art and culture is sneaking back into Fortune. We're still the capitalist's capitalist! 

The new Defence and Strategy section discusses "The Federalising of Charlie Wilson" The alternate, title: "The GMing of America"" was rejected because it turns out that you can't run the Defence Department like a business. For example, you can't round up all the executives  you don't like and transfer them to that bastard, Joe's Buick division. You can't even squeeze Joe's cars out of the dealerships and build up your sales. . . Oh, no, that you can do in the Defence Department. Some tricks are transferrable. And one of them is to not build up any of the departments under you at the expense of the other, in case that guy comes gunning for your job. The preliminary defence budget is back to "balanced forces," even though the Navy has almost all of its 400 ships, the Army has 20 of its 25 divisions, and the Air Force has only 70 or so of its 143 wings. Now, if you ask me, 143 wings are nuts when the capability of individual aircraft keeps growing so quickly. The Air Force is already stuck with ordering fleets of light transports which are, I guess, useful for reinforcing Laos but useless for a real war. Then there's useless light bombers, "strategic bombers" that can't fly down the street without a tanker, fighters so old we have to flog them off to Norway . . Do we really need all these planes? The shell shortage, by the way, is fizzing out, and we're watching the Red Army very carefully to see which way it jumps in the new Kremlin era. Zhukov is back, suggesting that the politicians are soothing the marshals' hurt feelings, perhaps because a power struggle between Malenkov and Beria looms, and Malenkov will need a counterweight to Beria's NKVD. 

Leaders

"Is The Kremlin Running Your Business?" What? By which I mean, "WHAT?" Okay, what Fortune means is that Russia has been calling the shots, what with starting cold wars and defence spending run-ups and all, and will again if peace leads to lower defence spending. Speaking of which, higher defence spending was a challenge to American "freedom," and we all like freedom, so stop whining about your cancelled contract. Another big story is the increased mobility of American executives, who have to put up with being transferred around the country more than ever these days. Another thing percolating through Washington these days is the difficulty the civil service is having just reaching their new bosses and knocking bad ideas out of their head. Fortune suggests some kind of office in the White House they can call. Where Sherman Adams answers the phone. Because someone has to run the country, and McCarthy can't do it alone. Fortune reminds us to keep on working 18 hour days and that mergers are good, really. 

"The Astin Uproar" Fortune explains why Sinclair Weeks was right to try to fire Dr. Astin, because maybe those battery additives do work, and anyway the scientists are just too full of themselves. Seriously! Over the jump, "It is clear that there is some good in AD-X2." No, there is not! Fortune is fatuously asserting that lead-acid batteries are so mysterious that some patent medicine (only not patent, because the AD-X2 formula is proprietary) just might juice them up, and if a bunch of testimonials gathered by the manufacturer say so, that's good enough for Fortune. Therefore, Sinclair Weeks did nothing wrong. Besides, a bit of mail fraud is good for the system, or, as Fortune puts it, "a bit of [buyer beware} is good for business." At this point, Weeks seems to be doubling down on the position that the NBS is bad, and Fortune is supporting him.

Unbelievable.

"The Hidden Struggle for the H-bomb" Did you know that really big H-bombs, the kind we're fairly sure we can make, aren't useful because a lot of their blast exits the Earth's atmosphere? Robert Oppenheimer thinks they're a bad idea, and the AEC  has been fighting about this for a while. Now that we actually have a "thermonuclear device" we should probably thing about not deploying it as a weapon. The problem is that this would get in the way of Teller and Lawrence's plans for their own weapons lab at Livermore. And the Air Force doesn't like being told that it can't blow up cities without blowing up civilians, so that's what they're fighting about now, and not the fact that Teller was completely wrong about being able to build the "super." (Not to get technical, but we can't just jam two hydrogen atoms together and make them go boom. We have to heat them up with a regular old atom bomb firsts.)

Just to be serious here for a second, Oppenheimer is behind the VISTA proposal to promise to neutralise SAC in the event of a war in Europe, restricting the use of atom bombs to "tactical" attacks in support of NATO ground forces in Europe and so removing the threat of an "insensate exchange of weapons of mass destruction" against each other's cities. Oppenheimer, and his supporters, James Conant and Lee DuBridge, were unable to persuade the Pentagon, Secretary Finletter, or, when they tried in Europe, General Norstad. Subsequently they backed, along with a new ally, Lloyd V. Berkner, the so-called ZORC plan, which emphasised a combination of active and passive air defences that would reduce Soviet atom bombers to "leaks" through the air defence umbrella that could be meliorated by civil defence measures thanks to "technological breakthroughs" that shifted the balance in air war to defence, and which could be implemented with the resources going to SAC. The general agreement is that ZORC is convincing on electronics, less so on cost. Its umbrella might cost from $50 to $150 billion, and even at the lower margin was uneconomical. Lewis Strauss, returned to AEC as the President's atomic advisor, supports a hydrogen-bomb-armed SAC deterring the Soviets by threats of mass destruction, and that's where we are. 

"One Man Pension Funds" Some kind of individual tax free retirement savings plan would benefit up to 10 million Americans. 

"The Air Conditioning Boom" The promised article puts some numbers to the "boom." Refrigeration including air conditioning was worth $1.25 billion in 1952; and so far air conditioning looks like it is following the steep curve of rising sales associated with previous appliances from radios to washing machines, from 30,000 sold in 1946 to 341,000 in 1952. It is unlikely that the industry will be able to meet a demand estimated at a million units in 1953, especially since demand spikes seasonally, making it hard to forecast and plan inventory. Central air conditioners are more elaborate, but also bigger installations. They might pay for themselves more efficiently if they become heating/cooling units, and even more so if they incorporate "heat pumps" that dump heat (and take) heat from the environment, but both ideas face all sorts of technical challenges in implementation which are likely to hold them back in the short term. It really is fascinating to me, although I've probably bored as many people as when I got on about forced air heating. 

"RKO: It's Only Money" So it turns out that Howard Hughes is a terrible businessman, the kind who can get snookered into partnering up with my Uncle Henry, and let me tell, that's dumb. That is, unless you're a mean enough cookie to stare him down, like Bechtel. 

"Jet Airliners II" American builders expect to jump into airliners with a mature product as soon as they have the engines, in 1957, which, Fortune points out, is very different from the twenty year progression from the DC-3 to the "well-tempered" airliner, the DC-7 or Super-Constellation. They think that the British won't be able to do enough detailed design and preparation to get an unassailable lead out of their engines, and that the Americans will be able to roll them back. The problem with that, of course, is that the British have their own more advanced turbine engines coming on. As we look at the back end of the Fifties, Boeing, Douglas, and Lockheed in the USA; and Vickers, Bristol, Avro, Handley Page and even de Havilland have prospects in Britain. Plus there is Fokker, and, not mentioned, SNCASE. The key fight is in the four-engined market, and Avro and Handley Page both intend to build airliner versions of their bomber. Vickers is much further along, and, of course, Bristol has its turboprop and de Havilland can develop the Comet. It is hard to make money on airliners. Look at Martin and Convair! Only Douglas and Lockheed can claim to have done it, and overall, $175 million more has gone into airliners than has come out, because they come out of the military aircraft game. 

What about the turboprop? Bristol thinks it can make it work, but Douglas and Lockheed are pessimistic about the propeller problem, unless the Air Force can prove the Curtiss-Wright "turboelectric" propeller. Bristol has 5 Britannias in various states of assembly, even if the Proteus engine hasn't flown yet. BOAC expects to put it the first of 31 ordered into service in 1955, and if the numbers are right, it will be the most economical airliner in the world for a very long time. Unless, that is, it is the Rolls Royce Conway that puts the turboprop out of business by being competitively economical and able to fly at speeds where the turboprop is unbearably loud. 

For the investor, the issues are that, first, the three West Coast builders cannot possibly all stay in the market, and the costs of tooling up to produce a jet airliner means that if Lockheed, Douglas or Boeing (but more likely the first two due to the B-52) cannot gain the edge in a market with room for only two of them at most, they will fall out of the civil airliner business. They will also fall out if the Vickers VC-7, which is "aimed straight at them," is a success; or if the Comet IV is, or if a "highly developed" Britannia rules the roost by 1960. Exciting, if nerve wracking times.