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difficulty; made arrangements to train American flyers in British schools; made and recommended to the United States reciprocal arrangements for American flyers in Canadian schools and of Canadian flyers in American schools; and, in general, handled many and complicated questions necessary for getting the American aircraft program started.

The linen question was but one example of many problems that needed to be negotiated. There was, at that time, a distinct world shortage of airplane linen. Almost all of the world's supply of satisfactory linen then came from Ireland, and the physical impossibility of sufficiently increasing nature's corps of linen was apparent. If the Americans were intending, as they were, to undertake an aircraft program, there was not then available nor in sight sufficient linen to permit the construction of the required quantity of safe airplanes. This meant that the British had to authorize a certain quantity of Irish linen for use on United States airplanes and had to reduce, just as America would likewise have to do, the safety factor in certain of their experimental and training planes. This was done by using cotton on certain parts of certain airplanes when sufficient linen was not available, though increased loss of life might possibly ensue.

The British made no attempt to "grab off" all the money they could from the Americans. They were heart-and-soul interested in winning the war. Instead of trying to see us nothing but British products, the British Air Board, as a body and individually, advised the Bolling mission that it should not make an final decisions as to what America should build until after it had visited the other Allied countries. They advised investigation of both the French and Italian types of airplanes before any final decisions were made.  The British did not try to force upon us any type of British plane. They gave us the best of advice and then left us free to make our final decisions, offering in the meantime all possible help and support.

In France, we found a totally different attitude. The senior members of our mission arrived in Paris about 2 a.m. on July 2, 1917. That morning, Bolling and I were received by the French Air Minister. Incidentally, he was thoughtfully enough to send a car to bring us to the Air Ministry. The chauffeur met us at our hotel. Within the first block he had three accidents. Within the first fifty feet after leaving the hotel he collided with another car. The voluble arguments which arose were quickly hushed when the other driver saw the uniforms of the Americans in the French car. A few feet further on, our driver crashed

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