§ 10. Mr. Stracheyasked the Secretary of State for War whether, in view of its present functions, composition and importance, he is satisfied with recruiting for the Army Supplementary Reserve.
§ Mr. HeadNo, Sir. The total requirement for the Supplementary Reserve is about 140,000 all ranks. Of this number we require some 38,500 volunteers. Up to date we have got only 7,500 volunteers. The volunteers play a vital part in this most important Reserve.
I believe that the failure in recruiting is largely due to the fact that little is known about these most important units which provide the great majority of technical and specialist reserve units to complete the Regular and Territorial Armies on mobilization. I have taken steps to increase publicity and thus, I hope, recruiting. I think that the title "Supplementary Reserve" is neither descriptive nor inspiring, and we have decided to call this most important section of the Army the Army Emergency 254 Reserve. I very much hope that with the aid of increased publicity, and I hope the full support of employers in industry, more volunteers will be forthcoming in the future.
§ Mr. StracheyWould not the Secretary of State think that the best name for this force is "Technical Units of the Reserve or Territorial Army," which in fact is what it is? We appreciate the fact that he is changing the name from the old one, but I feel doubts about the new name.
§ Mr. HeadI thought of the terms "technical unit" and "specialist unit" we have thought a lot about this. Although the majority are technical units, some are not, and I felt that such an embracing term would be somewhat ridiculous when applied to a very small proportion of these units.
§ Mr. WiggHow many meetings of the Army Council were held before it was decided that the title "Army Emergency Reserve" was more inspiring than "Army Supplementary Reserve"?
§ Mr. StokesWhen is a unit not a technical unit?