[AVIATION DEPARTMENT—IMPERIAL MUNITIONS BOARD]
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:
| Director of Aviation | G. A. Morrow, Esq., O.B.E. |
| Secretary | Mr. Geo. E. Wishart. |
| Chief Engineer | Mr. J. B. Carswell. |
| Asst. Chief Engineer | Mr. J. R. Hagelin. |
| Purchasing Agent | Mr. A. H. Mulcahey. |
| Asst. Purchasing Agent | Mr. A. S. McNinch. |
| Supt. Aero. Supplies | Mr. W. B. Cleland. |
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.