ROYAL NAVY.—MOTION FOR RETURNS. (Hansard, 29 March 1867)

§ THE DUKE OF SOMERSET

, in moving for a Return of the Number of Lieutenants on the Active List of the Navy in each Year from 1856 to 1867; and also for a Return showing the Number of Lieutenants employed in each Year from 1856 to 1867, said: My Lords, the object I have in view is this—it has been reported that the Board of Admiralty consider that the number of cadets entered of late years is too large, and that we have too many junior officers in the navy, and I desire to remove that impression. My experience in office teaches me that, instead of there being too many lieutenants, even during time of peace, we have lately had too few, and the Returns I move for will show that. Your Lordships are aware that the efficiency of the navy, especially during the next few years, will depend very much upon the efficiency 814 of the lieutenants, and it is of the greatest importance that the number should not fall below a certain minimum. I feel the more responsibility upon this subject, because some years ago I was Chairman of a Committee of the House of Commons which, after hearing the evidence of Lord Auckland, then first Lord of the Admiralty, and of the Naval Lords, recommended the reduction of the number of cadets; and the Admiralty not only acted on this view, but carried it out to greater extent than the Committee contemplated. The consequence was that as soon as the Russian war broke out, there was a serious want of lieutenants for the navy, and great complaints were made. On that account, feeling the responsibility of the opinion which I gave in connection with the Committee, even though that opinion was founded on the evidence which we took, I am now anxious to correct, at least as far as I can, any erroneous impression which may have been made by that Report, and to say that we increased the number of entries of cadets, because there were so few lieutenants in the navy. I have continually had complaints made to me that when lieutenants came home from foreign service or tropical climates, instead of being allowed a reasonable time to visit their friends, they were, in the course of a few weeks, appointed to a ship, and again sent to a distant part of the world. And that was the case even in time of peace. Such a system is not only injurious to the lieutenants themselves, but likewise detrimental to the interests of the service. I am not aware of the exact number of lieutenants in the navy at present, nor of the number now employed, and I have moved for these Returns in order to ascertain that, and to have the means of comparing the numbers now employed with the numbers in previous years, and I shall afterwards call the attention of the House to the subject. There are no complaints against the Board of Admiralty that I am aware of; and, in fact, in declining to appoint a larger number of cadets, they have given up a certain amount of patronage.