§ Flight-Lieutenant Beswickasked the First Lord of the Admiralty to what age and service group will warrant officers, supply, be released by 25th December.
Mr. AlexanderTwo hundred and ninety of the warrant officers, Supply, who are eligible for demobilisation and who have not volunteered to continue in the Naval Service, are in age and service groups 1–12. Extremely few of these officers are in the later groups. Of this 290, 128 are in group 1, and all who wish will be released by 25th December. I have every hope of being able to release up to 150, i.e., more than half the total, by the end of the year. This would bring the release of cookery officers up to group 7 and catering and stores officers up to group 5. I cannot yet say whether it will be possible to release warrant officer writers, who are so closely concerned with demobilisation itself, beyond group 1, but every effort will be made to do so.