Page 86 - Demo

86 Events reversed these priorities, although some progress had been made with planning. Indeed, by 1940 numerical identities had been assigned to the five FTSs that were to be set up in France, and locations had been identified for four of them, but the French collapse in June put paid to that scheme before it got off the ground. But this setback was more than offset by the success of the Canadian enterprise, which was mirrored on a smaller scale by broadly similar arrangements in South Africa and Rhodesia, supplemented by a variety of facilities provided by the United States. In October 1939 a British delegation, led by Lord Riverdale, set off for Ottawa.4 There it was to meet Canadian, Australian and New Zealand representatives with a view to setting up a joint system to train British and Dominion aircrew. The subsequent negotiations were not without their complications. The training scheme which had operated in Canada during WW I had been a British8run affair and, since Riverdale believed that %u2018it was beyond the RCAF%u2019s capabilities to %u201corganise and control a training scheme of this magnitude%u201d%u2019, it was envisaged that any similar arrangement would also have to be supervised by the RAF.5 Despite Britain%u2019s wish to control affairs, however, it was expected that the other participating governments would underwrite a substantial proportion of the cost. This high8handed imperialist attitude failed to take sufficient account of %u2018colonial%u2019 sensitivities %u2013 the point being, of course, that Dominions were not colonies, and the Canadian Prime Minister, Mackenzie King, took particular umbrage at this. Since Canada (unlike Australia) had not formed an air force of its own during WW I, all Canadian airmen (and all New Zealanders and many Australians) had been obliged to serve in British uniform. As a result, King felt that Canada%u2019s, very substantial, contribution to the first war in the air had been largely overlooked and that her sovereignty had in some way been impugned. This still smarted and he was determined to ensure that this should not happen again. Australia and New Zealand were in full sympathy with Canada over the question of national recognition. Furthermore, while the RAAF and RNZAF were content to take advantage of the potential offered by the proposed joint scheme in Canada, they fully intended to sustain and expand their domestic training organisations at the same time. After lengthy discussion, the Riverdale Agreement was eventually