§ 41. Mr. Stracheyasked the Secretary of State for War whether he will make a statement about the changes in training payments to the Territorial Army.
§ Mr. SoamesWe are providing enough money this year for what is considered to be the necessary amount of training. It will cover an average of 13 days weekend training for officers and 16 days for other ranks, over and above the attendance at annual camp and evening drills. Broadly speaking, this is the same amount of out-of-camp training as was carried out in 1956.
§ Mr. StracheyWhile appreciating that the Secretary of State cannot countenance what might be called training for the sake of training, may I ask whether he can assure us that this reduction, or apparent reduction, will have no discouraging effect on Territorial Army recruiting, which has been so encouraging during recent months?
§ Mr. SoamesWe have fixed this at what we consider to be the level to provide the necessary amount of training. If we discover that it does not provide sufficient time, we will certainly review it again, but, broadly speaking, it will provide the same amount of training as was done by the Territorial Army in 1956.