HC Deb 01 June 1932 vol 266 cc1144-5
13. Sir CHARLES CAYZER

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty if he can undertake to reduce within six months the 1,366 members of the clerical staff to 829, as at August, 1914; and, if not, will he allow three Members of the House, nominated by the Public Accounts and Estimates Committees, to test the staffing while the merger of the Secretary's and the Accountant-General's Departments is in progress, and so bring about an early reduction to not more than 829?

The FIRST LORD of the ADMIRALTY (Sir Bolton Eyres Monsell)

No, Sir, it is impossible for the Admiralty to revert to the staffing of 18 years ago unless the functions of the Department can also be restricted to those of 1914, which would involve inter alia the scrapping of legislation, international treaties, scientific developments and inventions, and the higher standard of naval conditions obtaining to-day. As regards the latter part of the question, I am afraid I cannot agree to the proposal that the three Members of this House who have been nominated in the ordinary constitutional manner to administer the Admiralty-should hand over that duty to three Members of this House nominated by the Public Accounts and Estimates Committees.

Sir C. CAYZER

In view of the fact that the staff of the Admiralty now appears to be one-third larger than in 1914, although the personnel of the Navy is 60,000 less, can the First Lord hold out any hope that there will be further substantial reductions in personnel this year?

Sir B. EYRES MONSELL

I can assure my hon. Friend that no one is more anxious than I am to reduce the staff to the lowest limit. If the question standing in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Mr. West Russell) had been asked, I was going to state that I would circulate a statement explaining, I think very well, why an additional staff is necessary to-day; and I hope my hon. Friend will read that answer.

Sir A. M. SAMUEL

Would not some amelioration result if the system of filing correspondence and the receipt and issue of letters were looked into at the Admiralty?