TERRITORIAL ARMY. (Hansard, 19 November 1946)

THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD PAKENHAM)

My Lords, I am very grateful for this opportunity of making a short statement. The House will appreciate that I cannot now make a complete and final statement about the reconstitution of the Territorial Army. I do, however, welcome this opportunity of adding to what has been said on this subject in the past. The Secretary of State will be making a similar statement in another place. The Territorial Army will be reconstituted on January 1, 1947, by voluntary recruiting. It will have a triple role. If there should be another war are most immediate threat will be from the air. Provision of anti-aircraft artillery of some kind will be essential. Our Regular Army is too small to undertake this task, and this vital commitment, will, therefore, fall largely on the Territorial Army. In the second place, the Territorial Army will provide the units needed by the Regular Army to convert that force into a properly balanced force ready for battle. Thirdly, the Territorial Army will provide a second line to the Regular Army on a basis on which our Armies will expand in the event of war. Noble Lords will realize that in order to carry out this role the Territorial Army will have to contain not only infantry divisions but armoured formations, an airborne division and, if necessary, supporting corps and Royal Engineer troops.

I hope that all formation commanders will be appointed by January 1, and the majority of unit commanders by February I next year. A permanent Staff will be provided on a larger scale than before the war, but, even so, permanent Staff should not exceed two per cent. of the whole unit establishment. It is essential that this machine should be in place and working before recruits are taken on in any numbers. It is unlikely, therefore, that it will be possible to open general recruiting before April I next year, and I trust that keen volunteers will come forward in large numbers. We depend on them to build the framework of the Territorial Army. Eventually there will in addition be a large compulsory element. These men will not, however, begin to reach Territorial units until late in the summer of 1950. In the interval, the necessary accommodation will have to be provided and systems of training suitable 137 both for the voluntary element and for the compulsory element will have to be worked out.

It is intended that a large part of the administration of the Territorial Army shall continue to be entrusted to county associations, to whose splendid work in the past I desire to pay a warm tribute now. Their future duties have already been explained to them in outline and I shall be elaborating those duties further when I address the Central Council of Territorial Associations by their kind invitation to-morrow. These duties will be complex and exacting and it has, therefore, been decided that all associations shall include representatives of all types of local government bodies, of trade unions, of employers' associations and of local education authorities, with due limits on the numbers of each. Certain minor changes in the field of selection and tenure of office of military members will be made, and room will be found for pre-service training organizations. There will in future be no restrictions as to rank or sex for appointment to membership.

I realize that what I have said will give noble Lords only a bare outline. This is not, however, an opportunity to go into detail and indeed a number of important points of detail have yet to be settled. I appreciate the great value that comes to the Territorial Army from the interest taken in it by this House, and I have no doubt that the House will wish to debate all these matters on a suitable occasion. I need hardly say that for my part I shall be ready and anxious for such a discussion.