This Department formed a many-sided organization, by means of which the physical and financial wants of the Royal Air Force, Can., were provided. It secured funds from the War Office, spent and accounted for them; designed, built, and equipped innumerable structures; purchased all supplies from the sailmaker’s needle to the aeroplane and bought materials from countless sources for a vast variety of needs.

It delved into electrical and mechanical problems, sowed grass, bored wells, built railways, leased land, secured labour of all descriptions, engaged lawyers and advanced money. If the Royal Air Force was an Imperial brigade, this section of the “I.M.B.” was no less a Canadian civilian battalion, composed of members representing an officer commanding, paymasters, quartermasters, engineers and sappers, etc., and maintaining a constant and helpful liaison, without which a certain history of mutual accomplishments would be the acme of brevity.

The Department, for purposes of efficiency, was subdivided into the following sections: Executive, Purchasing, Construction, Transport, and Aeronautical Supply—all responsible to the Director of Aviation, and through him to the Imperial Munitions Board proper. The officers were:

The first section, composed of the Secretary and accountants, was responsible for all expenditures, and made weekly detailed returns to the Auditor of the Board in Ottawa. They dealt in millions, and submitted vouchers for all disbursements, as well as reporting all executive transactions. The advantage of this coÖperation with the parent organization which dealt in hundreds of millions, is obvious.

The Purchasing Section was manned by expert buyers in various branches, and furnished the entire needs of the brigade with the exception of rations, pay and medical service. Machinery, tools, boots, oil—there were some ten thousand articles in Stores Depot—all of which were secured by this section of the Department.

The Construction Section, since the autumn of 1917, erected all buildings used by the brigade, and overhauled and remodelled other premises secured for their use. At the outset of operations, various contractors were employed—but, this practice terminated, the Construction Section was organized under careful supervision of competent engineers of the Aviation Department to perform these and added duties. It purchased its own supplies and was responsible for prices and quantities, as well as for a Commissary Department which supplied employees with meals and accommodation.

Transportation—always a problem and especially so in wartime—was entrusted to an expert railwayman, skilled in harassing railway companies into good delivery. The moving of thousands of men to and from Texas, with hundreds of carloads of supplies, came under this section with most creditable results.

Aeronautical supplies were in charge of an expert in aeroplanes and their parts, who stood between the aeroplane factory and the aircraft equipment section of the brigade. Through him were followed up all machines, engines and spares ordered by the Purchasing Section. Contact was maintained hereby with American factories, to which periodical visits were made when the brigade was dependent on these extraneous sources of supply.

Such in brief are the fundamentals, but without further detail the service given by the Aviation Department could not be realized. The following notes therefore, should prove of interest.

Accounts were under the immediate direction of the Secretary. So speedily was the Department organized that time did not afford to investigate either the system to be adopted or the number of accounts to be opened. Flexibility was in consequence desirable, and when in October, 1918, a new set of ledger headings were called for by the Air Ministry, there was neither difficulty nor delay in remodelling the existing accounts to the new form.

The Department was authorized to make disbursements from an imprest fund when immediate payment was necessary, but this method was only used when unavoidable, as for instance, outlay in staff payrolls, initial payments for leases, and in cases where a discount period had nearly lapsed. For such outlay repayment cheque to the fund was always subsequently issued.

The standard method of meeting obligations was by sending certified bills to the Finance Department, Imperial Munitions Board, at Ottawa, where cheques were issued therefor. These bills were listed in alphabetical order, and also chronologically under each creditor’s name. Confusion of any kind was entirely avoided.

During those months when contractors were employed in the erection of buildings and other work, the Aviation Department was continually represented at the contractor’s office by an auditing staff. These officials checked all time worked, and all disbursements of every nature on the part of the contractor. Such obligations were paid by the latter, who then forwarded the receipted bills to the Department. There they were recorded and sent on to Ottawa for payment.

Extraneous accounting was done in the United States. When a large part of the brigade went to Texas in November, 1917, the omnipresent “I.M.B.” accompanied in the person of the Chief Purchasing Agent, fortified with an imprest fund. This, deposited in the National City Bank, permitted local payments, which in turn were submitted to the Toronto Office with the necessary vouchers. In addition to all the foregoing, the Board at Ottawa was represented by a travelling auditor who checked all expenditure before it was submitted to Ottawa. Thus the Chief Auditor was kept constantly informed, and enabled to make regular reports to the Ministry of Munitions in England of all disbursements by the Aviation Department.

On page 58 will be found a monthly total of these amounts, as apart from expenditure by the brigade. It is impossible to make comparisons, but it is nevertheless believed that in no section of any military organization has better value been secured for the amount involved.

The Purchasing Section, up to January 1st, 1919, issued 15,700 orders and handled 37,300 invoices. Business of this magnitude demands system, and in this case got it. On page 35 is a diagram showing not only the procedure of purchase, but also the history of invoices when received, reflecting the coÖperation between consumer and purchaser to secure assurance of the delivery of what has been ordered, before payment.

Mention has been made of the variety of the purchases arranged by this section, and to this might be added the fact that extremely large quantities were involved.

(Procedure of Purchase)

(History of Invoices)

Fuel requirements for the current year, for instance, were estimated at nearly 30,000 tons, and, in spite of certain official privileges extended to the Department, shipments of this magnitude called for very special attention, particularly at a time when great public anxiety was felt in securing fuel supply.

Gasoline requirements comprised about 16,000 gallons per month, and this, owing to the limited storage capacity at the various wings, was very carefully watched and traced in transit. It speaks well for the Department that during a period when the railway system was congested with freight, flying was not at any time interfered with owing to shortage of this supply.

The Transportation Section was indebted to the wonderful coÖperation of contractors and railway companies for assistance in overcoming delays due to this congestion, as well as to the great shortage of raw material.

Business between the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation and the British Ministry of Munitions was carried in the Section’s purchasing ledgers, as well as records of all shipments from the Canadian Aeroplanes Limited to the Signal Service of the U.S. Government. The amount of material shipped to Texas in 1917 from the factory amounted to not less than four and a half million dollars. This was a mutually acceptable arrangement by which training in the U.S. was carried out most successfully and the output of the factory maintained at a satisfactory point.

Conjointly with the Purchasing Section, there must be considered its kindred bureau, the Traffic Branch. This body traced and delivered all materials to their proper destination, checked all freight and express bills, and applied them against their proper invoices and orders. Investigation of conditions governing freight rates was a special study, and in one instance the Traffic Branch was able to prove to the Canadian Freight Association that the minimum carload weight previously required on shipments of aeroplanes and spares was in point of fact unjustified considering the light nature of the material. This was subsequently increased, resulting in a marked saving in the transportation of such material to and from the various camps. The Texas movement involved 375 cars and 5,000 men. This was an admirably managed undertaking, so successful that within five days from the date of leaving Canada our machines were climbing into the air above Texas aerodromes.

The Section of Aeronautical Supply, as has been stated, maintained liaison between the Aircraft Equipment Branch of the brigade and the factory; also it acted as a buffer state between the brigade and the manufacturer of such technical equipment as cameras, wireless instruments, machine guns, etc., and the tremendous number of spare parts involved.

The progress in the training of pilots has from time to time demanded new equipment of multitudinous variety. The advanced nature of the work of both aeroplane and engine repair park called for a steady stream of those individual members which when assembled constitute the completed machine. The selection, purchase, and delivery of the technical equipment of the brigade, fell in short to this section, which executed the business transactions involved as required by the Aircraft Equipment Branch at headquarters.

Liaison between the two has been admirable, and the result, therefore, eminently satisfactory.

The Construction Section has, in the course of its strenuous existence, carried out the following work:

It had, furthermore, put in five thousand plumbing fixtures; cleaned, rolled and seeded nearly four thousand acres of land for flying purposes, and done a commissary business which touched forty thousand meals a week.

In these activities it spent five and a half million dollars.

From all of which it may be seen that what was accomplished equals the building of a modern town with streets, sanitation of every description and every physical equipment.

Had it been a town the work had been easier, but as it was there were many areas, with two hundred miles between extreme points.

In dispensing with contractors and assuming itself all obligations the Department was swayed by but one fact. The requirements of the brigade were so varying and so subject to training considerations, that it seemed impossible to adequately provide for all contingencies by contract. The change took place in the autumn of 1917, and in the months that followed the Munitions Board profited by unity of control, by the opportunity of large bulk purchases of material, and by every consequent advantage accruing to a single organization which directs many scattered operations.

The Chief Engineer of this section directed executive work, his assistant supervised construction. With them were the heads of the draughting room, the estimating section and the construction purchasing department, together with the chief electrician, the plumbing superintendent, the heating superintendent, road superintendent and the head of the commissary and transport section. In the section office a staff of fifty was employed, when in the middle of October, 1918, there were 2,200 men on the payroll. The following diagram illustrates the organization:—

The Construction Section was, in fact, pivoted so that it might at any moment turn its attention to new work without departing from its main and central programme, and to this flexibility is attributable the unquestionable success it achieved.