§ Mr. R. YOUNGasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty if it is the intention of the Admiralty to speed up promotion to boys now in training for engine-room artificers who may, at the end of three years' training, volunteer to become ordnance artificers; and for how long it is intended to keep the boys under training who may volunteer for the rating of ordnance artificers?
§ Dr. MACNAMARAThe course for boys' training for engine-room artificer has now been extended to the pre-War duration of 4½ years, and, similarly, boys training for ordnance artificer will undergo a course of 4½ years, the last 12 months of which will be spent in a gunnery school. Boy ordnance artificers are entered as such, and as a general rule there is no question of boys training for engine-room artificer volunteering for ordnance artificer, after undergoing any particular period of training. A certain number of boys under training for engine-room artificer have been permitted to transfer to the ordnance artificer branch, but any such transfers in future would be dependent upon the requirements for the latter branch. I am advised that it is not 2415W the intention that either boys allowed to transfer to the ordnance artificer branch, or boys entered specifically for training as ordnance artificers, should undergo less than the full period of their course, and no reason is seen for any departure from this procedure.