The main difficulty in the higher organization was the lack of co-operation between the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service and their competition for the supply of men and machines--the demands of both being urgent and insatiable. As a first step to overcome this, an Air Board was formed in May, 1916, to discuss general air policy, especially the combined operation of the Naval and Military Air Services, to make recommendations on the types of machines required by each, and to co-ordinate the supply of material. The Air Board was an improvement, but not a remedy, and, therefore, in 1917 it was decided to form an Air Ministry responsible for war aviation in all its branches and to amalgamate the Naval and Military Air Services as the Royal Air Force. This was carried into effect early in 1918, with Lord Rothermere as Secretary of State for Air with a seat in the Cabinet, and the air became the third service of the Crown, with an independent Government department permeated with a knowledge of air navigation, machinery, and weather, and closely allied to the industrial world for the initiation, guidance, and active supervision of research and experimental work. I will mention later some of the many arguments for and against the retention of an independent Air Ministry and autonomous Air Force in peace. The amalgamation was certainly advantageous in war. It effected the correlation of a number of hitherto independent services according to a uniform policy and prevented overlapping by centralizing administration. Under single control it was possible to carry out, on a carefully co-ordinated plan, recruiting and training, to supply men and material, to organize air power according to the strategic situation in each of the various theatres of war, and to form the correct ratio between the air forces in the field and the reserves in training at home. The difficulty was that the amalgamation had to be carried out during the most intensive period of air effort, but by the end of the war most of these objects had been attained without jeopardizing the close co-operation with the Army and Navy. Co-operation with the Naval and General Staffs and with naval and military formations was, in fact, improved, independent action was beginning to bear fruit, and we possessed an Air Force without rival. CHAPTER III PEACE THE FUTURE OF AERIAL DEFENCE.