§ 15. Mr. Petherickasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he has now completed his inquiries as to why over a quarter of the officers of the Royal Navy who have been posted to the Imperial Defence College are retired or unemployed, as compared with none unemployed, and only one in 13 and one in 19, respectively, unemployed in the Army and the Royal Air Force; and what steps he intends to take to ensure that in future the Admiralty pay adequate attention to combined staff training?
§ The First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. Duff Cooper)I have inquired very carefully into this matter, and I have satisfied myself that there is no ground for thinking that there is any tendency in the Admiralty to underrate the importance of combined staff training or the value of the instruction given at the Imperial Defence College. According to the most recent figures 17 per cent. of the Naval Officers who have passed through the College in the last 10 years are not in active employment. This percentage is higher than those in the other Services, which may be fortuitous, or may be due to the fact that while due weight should be, and is, given to other considerations, the final test for promotion to Flag rank on the active list must be the qualities shown by an officer when holding a responsible command at sea.