NAVAL FORCES (EXTENSION OF SERVICE) BILL, [H.L.] (Hansard, 16 December 1943)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY (LORD BRUNTISFIELD)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time. By this Bill the Admiralty seeks power to extend the limited period under which members of the Reserves and long-service men may be retained, so as to cover the full period of the "emergency," that is to say the period of hostilities and the subsequent period of demobilization during which men must be legally liable to remain in the Forces. The present position is that under the Royal Naval Reserve (Volunteer) Act of 1859 and the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Act of 1942, the Admiralty may retain members of the Reserves in service for five years. Unfortunately, it is now clear that this will not see us through the full period of emergency and it is, therefore, necessary to obtain further powers. With regard to long- 381 service men, the Admiralty has power at present to extend the services of time-expired men whose period of engagement expires during the war for not more than five years from the date of their engagement. This again will now be insufficient, and by the same Bill the Admiralty, therefore seeks authority to retain these men for the full period of the emergency. The Reserves who will be affected by the Bill are the Royal Fleet Reserve, Royal Naval Reserve, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, including the Royal Naval Volunteer (Wireless) Reserve and the Royal Naval Special Reserve.
The Bill, as will be observed, is very short and contains only three clauses. The first of these provides for the powers of retention to which I have referred. Clause 2 covers a small complication that has arisen owing to the wording of the Royal Naval Reserve (Volunteer) Act, 1859. Under Section 5 of that Act an extension of service from three to five years only applies to Reservists "in actual service" at the date of the extending Proclamation. It is now intended to apply both that extension and the present indefinite extension to Reservists who were not in actual service at the critical date because, for example, they had been temporarily released for agriculture or other important civil work. Thus we shall put them on the same footing as war entrants similarly released. It may be recalled that during the last war, although the Armistice occurred within five years of mobilization, powers of retention for a limited period were secured for all three Forces by the Naval, Military and Air Force Service Act, 1919, to cover the requirements of demobilization. The powers for which the Admiralty now asks have already been granted in respect of the Army and Royal Air Force by the Military and Air Forces (Prolongation of Service) Act, 1939. They will not in any way run counter to plans which are being made for demobilization, and the object of the Bill is simply to place members of the Naval Reserves in an analogous position with their brothers serving in the other two Services. I hope that, in view of what I have said, your Lordships will be content to regard this measure as entirely non-controversial.

LORD STRABOLGI
My Lords, before we part with this Bill, which, I am glad to see, originates in your Lordships' House, may I ask my noble friend a couple of questions of which I have given him notice? The first question is, will he give us an assurance that in view of the nature of this Bill, and the prolongation of what he calls the emergency, there will be no cause for any grievance left with regard to the promotions of officers of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve? I do not know that grievances exist at the present time, but I have heard expressions of surprise at the slow rate of promotion in the Naval Services generally compared with the Royal Air Force and His Majesty's Army, and also suggestions that the quota of promotions for Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers might be extended. The question I would particularly like to ask is, how many officers of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve have reached the rank of Commander or have obtained higher ranks? I do not, of course, press for accurate information on this point, but I shall be glad if the noble Lord can give me approximate figures.
The reason I ask is that in this war particularly the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, especially in its commissioned ranks, has extended enormously, and is, in fact, now in a vast majority in His Majesty's Fleet. I noticed that the First Lord of the Admiralty, in paying some well deserved tributes to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve recently, informed the public that there were 2,000 R.N.V.R. officers now in independent commands. Twenty-one were in command of destroyers, and nearly fifty were in command of frigates and corvettes. There were now, he stated, two and a half times as many R.N.V.R. officers serving afloat as Royal Naval officers. Admiral Sir John Tovey said that in the Home Fleet 60 per cent. of the officers were from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. It is obvious, therefore that these gentlemen are doing very similar work to that of their brothers of the Royal Navy. Your Lordships will, I am sure, all agree that these officers are carrying out their duties extremely well, and in these circumstances, it does seem that they should be entitled to promotion, even if they may not have such long service as officers of the Royal Navy who entered the Navy through Dartmouth or the other entries. War service gives great experi- 383 ence, and if this war is going on into fifth and sixth years, I should think that these gentlemen would be well fitted, by reason of active service with the Fleet, to fill high positions in the Royal Navy, if they are otherwise qualified.
I am very glad to have the opportunity of making this point to my noble friend, and I am confident that he will give a satisfactory answer. I believe it is the wish of the nation that these gentlemen should be properly recognized in this matter. Promotion is from the lower deck now—my noble friend Lord St. Davids is an example of that—and the value of the service of these Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers in this war cannot, I think, be exaggerated. In the last war we used to talk of them affectionately as Harry Tate's Navy, but of course the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve was a much smaller unit then. Now in many ships Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers and men make up a very great part of the personnel, except for a nucleus of long-service officers and men of the Royal Navy. Your Lordships, I feel sure, will support me in desiring to make quite certain that no regulations or old traditions shall stand in the way of meritorious officers receiving promotion.

§ LORD BRUNTISFIELD
My Lords, I think I can in a very few words give the noble Lord the assurance he seeks. Certainly I would be the first, as representative of the Admiralty in this House, to affirm everything that he has said by way of tribute to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and other reserves. They are magnificent and there is nobody in the Royal Navy who does not know perfectly well that but for them we simply could not carry on the war at sea. The record which they have achieved at sea during this war is just as great as, if not greater than, in the last war, and that is saying a great deal.
So far as promotion is concerned, I can assure the noble Lord that there is no deliberate discrimination against promotion of Royal Naval Reserve officers, but your Lordships will appreciate that the great bulk of these officers are comparatively young. The length of their training has naturally been comparatively short, and before an officer can be pro- 384 moted to the higher ranks it is absolutely essential, particularly having regard to the extremely complicated methods of modern warfare at sea, that he should have sufficient experience to give the men under his command confidence in his powers of command. But there is no discrimination. Where an officer is suited for promotion to higher responsibilities there is nothing to prevent him from being promoted, and indeed officers are so promoted. To give actual figures, I can tell the noble Lord that as far as permanent promotions of pre-war R.N.V.R. officers are concerned there have been promoted from Commander to Captain seven officers, and from Lieutenant-Commander to Commander, fifty-six. As regards acting ranks in the R.N.V.R.—these are officers who have come in since the war— I am not able to give the noble Lord an absolutely accurate figure, because to do so would involve the Department in a tremendous amount of labour, but I am assured that the figures I am going to give are pretty accurate, and they can be taken as such. There are to-day among the officers to whom I am now referring sixty Commanders and at least four Captains. As the war goes on it is perfectly obvious that these figures will grow, and not only because we shall be needing more officers of these ranks, but because those who are in the Service will have had the length of service and experience which they must have before they are given these higher ranks. I hope that will satisfy the noble Lord.