§ 3. Commander Courtneyasked the Secretary of State for Defence whether, in the interests of economy, conciseness and avoidance of misunderstanding, he will replace the expression Minister of Defence United Kingdom by the single word Admiralty in the address of operational messages dispatched after 1st April, 1964, by Her Majesty's ships to his Department.
§ Mr. HayNo, Sir. As an interim measure between April and the autumn, signal messages intended for the Navy Department will use a single group to denote the address, MOD(Navy). As I informed my hon. and gallant Friend on 4th March last, after the autumn we propose to introduce one address, MOD(UK), for all messages to and from the Ministry of Defence.
§ Commander CourtneyIs not the expression "Moduk" rather a poor substitute for the old-fashioned term "Admiralty", and would it not be a proper acknowledgment of the powers delegated to my right hon. Friend by the Lord High Admiral if he were to retain the old expression?
§ Mr. HayI did not use the expression "Moduk". I said "MOD" and then, in brackets, "UK". Whether in practice people will say "Moduk" remains to be seen.