§ Mr. Parkerasked the First Lord of the Admiralty when the mate scheme of promotion to commissioned rank was extended to the accountant branch in the Australian Navy; the numbers of such officers and years in which commissioned and their present ranks; and what are the difficulties in introducing an early promotion to commissioned rank scheme for accountant branch ratings in the British Navy, observing that such promotion schemes were introduced for the executive and engineering branches and the Royal Marines in 1912 to 1914, and that last year 30 civilians from the reserves were entered as accountant officers, although 20 accountant ratings, between the ages laid down, had qualified for officers' rank and 308 had passed the necessary higher educational test?
§ Mr. ShakespeareI understand that the scheme for direct promotion to commissioned rank was extended to the accountant branch of the Royal Australian Navy in 1923 and that two ratings were promoted in 1923 and are now paymaster lieutenant-commanders, one in 1927 who is now retired and one in 1937 who is still an acting paymaster sub-lieutenant.
I regret that I am not yet in a position to make an announcement as to the possibility of increasing promotion amongst account branch ratings to commissioned rank.