Foreign aircraft as Commonwealth stopgaps

Would a continuing British imperial defence system buy foreign aircraft or use them as stopgaps for its own designs?

Foreign purchases would probably serve as stopgaps unless reciprocal trade returned an equivalent British sale to the supplier.

A continuing British imperial system would probably use foreign aircraft as stopgaps for its own designs. Reciprocal procurement could also make a foreign purchase acceptable. In the French example, France would have to buy British equipment of equivalent value. The quantities and types of equipment would not have to match, provided the value of the purchases balanced.