Former MP for Worcester
Her Majesty the Queen was returning yesterday from Copenhagen in a Comet of Royal Air Force Transport Command. At about 11 o'clock, when the aircraft was flying at a height of 35,000 feet near the Ems estuary, the co-pilot saw two fighters which approached the Comet head on and passed very close to it. These fighters appeared to bear the markings of the Federal German Air Force. I have set...
Yes, Sir. As the hon. Member knows, one of the main objects of Eurocontrol is to ensure the safety of air navigation, both military and civil, in the upper air space. As my right hon. Friend told the House in June this year, a draft agreement has already been approved in principle.
I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Minister of Aviation shares the anxiety of every hon. Member in the House to get this matter settled. Perhaps the hon. Member will address his questions to my right hon. Friend.
We estimate the direct cost to Air Votes in the last five financial years at £4·4 million, £5 million, £5·1 million, £4·9 million, and £5·2 million.
Yes, but I should make it clear to my hon. Friend that the figures of cost for which the Question asked, and which I have given, are not quite the same as local expenditure, but we have spent about £18 million in Malta in this period.
We have no surplus tunics, but there are about 5,000 battle-dress blouses and 4,000 skirts which the Women's Junior Air Corps can buy from us cheaply if it wishes.
The Women's Junior Air Corps is an independent organisation. While we gladly help it in a number of ways, we cannot make free gifts of public property in this way. We have, however, decided that surplus uniforms should be offered at a price which I think the Corps will find not too onerous.
They will be 140 ft. in diameter.
