SECOND READING. (Hansard, 30 April 1903)

§ THE FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY (The Earl of SELBORNE)

My Lords, this Bill is not a large Bill, and yet it is a distinctly important one from the point of view of naval efficiency. Its object is to increase the facilities of the Admiralty for the enlargement of naval reserves, and it is based on the recommendations of the very able Committee on Naval Reserves, which was presided over by Sir Edward Grey, and the Report of which has been laid before both Houses of Parliament. The object of the Bill is, in the first place, to enable the Admiralty to establish forces of Naval and Marine Volunteers. I have been asked to what purpose in a war a Naval Volunteer could be put. I can only reply that the Admiralty would use him according to the interests of the State at the moment. There can be no pledge that the Volunteer will be used either on land or on sea specially. He would probably be used on land in connection with the ports and the coastguard and signal stations, but he would also, I think, be used at sea and if once used at sea a Naval Volunteer must understand—and those who are interested in the creation of this force thoroughly understand—that he must be prepared not to limit his service either in scope or kind. He must be prepared to come under the Naval Discipline Act, and to do any work on board ship to which the captain of that ship may put him, and he must also be prepared to serve wherever the Admiralty may send the ship in which he is entered. So far as possible, the Admiralty are quite prepared to undertake to employ such Volunteers in the fleets and squadrons nearer home, but there is no obligation on them not to employ them elsewhere, and, of course, if in lime of war a ship in which Naval Volunteers are borne is ordered from home waters to more distant waters, they must be thoroughly prepared to go with their ship. It is quite obvious that there are special ratings in which a Naval Volunteer may be of particular use. I refer to such ratings as the electrician ratings, mechanic 923 or artisan ratings, and signal ratings, if he has taken every opportunity in time of peace to perfect himself according to the opportunities given him, and those are extra and special to the more ordinary seamen ratings with which your Lordships are all familiar. The great distinction between this force and the old Naval Artillery Volunteers lies in the fact to which I have drawn your Lordships' attention, that such Volunteers must be prepared to serve wherever the Admiralty send them, and not only in coastal waters.

The second object of this Bill is to extend the powers of the Admiralty in respect of non-continuous service men. Your Lordships will remember that about fifty years ago a great revolution took place in the manning of the Navy. Up to that time every man serving in the Navy was a non-continuous service man; that is, he entered for a limited period, generally for one commission, at the end of which time he reverted to civil life. The continuous service system changed all that, and offered to the seamen a profession for life. It offered him an engagement, first of all for ten years from the age of eighteen, and now for twelve years from the age of eighteen, at the expiration of which period he was offered a pension if he extended his service to twenty-one years. That is the continuous service system, and the great bulk of the men are now serving under that system; but the non-continuous service men, although constantly diminishing in numbers, have never disappeared; there are several thousand of them at present in the Fleet, more especially in connection with the ratings that are not seamen ratings, and at the present time the non-continuous service man and the continuous service man are serving side by side. The object of this Bill is to enable the Admiralty to make a bargain with the non-continuous service man and say to him: "Will you join the Navy to serve in the Fleet for three or four years and then pass into the Fleet Reserve for the unexpired portion of twelve years from the date of your enlistment?" This is in order that we may build up in a more rapid manner the Royal Fleet Reserve, which, unlike the Royal Naval Reserve, is composed entirely of men who have served in the Fleet. This is to enable the Royal 924 Fleet Reserve to be increased more quickly, especially in the stoker ratings, where there is, and otherwise will be in the future, serious deficiency, and by entering these men for non-continuous service in the Fleet, and then for six, seven, or eight years in the Reserve, as the case may be, in a few years time we hope to build up a really large Fleet Reserve. It is also proposed to extend the system to the seamen ratings as well as to the stoker ratings, but it is with the special object of increasing the stoker ratings that this proposal is made. At the same time we ask Parliament to abolish those limits to both the Fleet and the Naval Reserve now imposed by Act of Parliament. There is no object in having such limits imposed because, of course, it rests in the discretion of Parliament every year to limit the Reserve by limiting the money it chooses to vote for their pay. Therefore in no sense is the control of Parliament decreased, but an arbitrary, and, it seems to me, quite unnecessary, limitation of the Reserves will be removed. I ask your Lordships to read this Bill a second time.

§ EARL SPENCER

I remember very well that the Board over which I had the honour to preside had to consider this question, and we came to the conclusion that it was not desirable to renew at that time this Volunteer force for the Navy. The noble Earl the present First Lord thinks it would be wise, and he is supported by the recommendation of a very important Committee, that we should once more have recourse to Volunteers for seamen and Marines. I sincerely trust that this will turn out 925 well, and that past difficulties will not recur. The noble Earl referred to the special ratings under which Volunteers might enter and be of great service. I need hardly point out that these special ratings have increased in number and become very much more important since the old Volunteers existed, and therefore I think there is every reason to hope that in this respect Naval Volunteers will be of great use; but I hardly expect that a large body of Volunteers will ever be found to be of great service in manning ships in time of war. That they would be of service on the coast is likely to be true, and I sincerely hope the experiment will be successful. I attach great importance to securing a proper Reserve for naval service. Even if the efforts to secure large numbers of seamen and stokers have been successful, we have not now the resource the mercantile marine provided in old days. The pages of the report of the Committee over which Sir Edward Grey so ably presided show how circumstances have completely changed and how, while the number of British seamen in the mercantile marine has diminished, the demands of the Navy have increased. The proposal to increase the number of non-continuous service men will add enormously to the number of the Reserve, and I welcome the Bill in the belief that it will be of service to the Navy in the future. It has been said that this Bill removes from the House of Commons the power of regulating the number of men employed in the naval forces, But the real fact is that, though the Admiralty may name the number of men to be employed in these different forces, Parliament must have the ratification of the numbers and can always refuse to vote the money for them. I therefore rejoice that part of the Bill removes the limitation of 30,000 and 15,000 to the two great Reserves that now exist for the Navy. There is another point which has been discussed in another place. I would be glad if the regulations which have to be drawn out with regard to these new forces were, when made or shortly afterwards, to be laid before Parliament. The Admiralty in another place have refused to agree to a new clause dealing with this matter. Possibly the proposal made is not quite consistent with some of the old regulations, but at 926 the same time I think Parliament has a right to expect that all the regulations should be made known to it. I heartily support the Second Reading of the Bill.