§ 36. Sir I. Fraserasked the Secretary of State for War the number of officers and men in uniform and the number of civilians employed by his Department in 1937 and in 1957.
§ Mr. SoamesIn 1937 there were 9,200 army officers, 130,300 other ranks and 32,700 civilians. The corresponding figures for 1957 were 28,700, 301,600 and 238,400.
§ Sir I. FraserCan my right hon. Friend say whether those figures were obtained after he had combed out the "tail" in his recent combing, and why he wants so many more civilians now to do the same job as that done twenty years ago?
§ Mr. SoamesThis was the figure up to 1957. I took up the comb only in 1958.
§ Sir I. FraserWhat about the second part of my supplementary question?
§ Mr. SpeakerMr. Dodds.
§ Sir I. FraserWhy does the Minister ignore the second part of my question? I asked why he needs more "tail" now than twenty years ago.
§ Mr. SoamesI apologise to my hon. Friend. I did not mean to avoid the question. The position is the same throughout all three Services. There has been considerable extra civilianisation and there will be more. When the reorganisation is completed there will be a higher proportion of civilians to soldiers in the Army. The Army will be considerably smaller, however, as will the total of the civilian force.