§ 19. Mr. A. V. ALEXANDERasked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of requests so far received at the Admiralty under the new reviews of service conditions; the commands and the number from each command; the commands from which the requests are outstanding; the date on which the last requests are expected; and whether he will take steps to expedite the reviews in view of the fact that they were begun nearly four months ago?
§ Sir S. HOAREAs the answer includes a table of figures, I propose, with the permission of the right hon. Gentleman, to circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. ALEXANDERWould the First Lord reply to the last sentence of my question?
§ Sir S. HOAREYes, Sir, the procedure is taking its normal course. There is no undue delay. There are, however, a large number of these requests. They have to be analysed command by command before we can deal with such of them as affect the Navy generally rather than the specific Departments.
§ Mr. ALEXANDERThe right hon. Gentleman will know that these reviews have been in abeyance for some time, and although we are now glad that they are being prosecuted, some of the men are anxious that the reviews should be settled very early on.
§ Sir S. HOAREWe are taking them into account as quickly as we can, but the right hon. Gentleman will be interested to know that the requests run into several hundreds.
§ Following is the information required:
§ The number of requests already received at the Admiralty under the Review of Service Conditions is about 1,665. Approximate figures for each command are:
| Home Fleet | 310 |
| Nore | 245 |
| Plymouth | 300 |
| China | 295 |
| East Indies | 70 |
| America and West Indies | 260 |
| New Zealand | 30 |
| Reserve Fleet | 75 |
| Fishery Protection and Minesweeping Flotilla | 50 |
| Coast of Scotland | 30 |
§ The commands from which requests have not yet been received are Portsmouth, Mediterranean and Africa. The last of these requests may be expected to be received in January.
§ With regard to the last part of the question, it was only the beginning of these reviews that was made in September or October. Since then, the reviews have been continuing, and the interval has been fully occupied in the investigation of requests in the Fleet and in their transit to the Admiralty. The Admiralty begin their examination of requests as they are received, but they cannot undertake their Review of Service Conditions as a whole until they have received and examined the requests from all commands.