§ Mr. FORRESTasked the Secretary of State for War what is the strength of the Army and Reserve Forces now as compared with July, 1914; and why 7,607 officials are now necessary as against 2,800 then to deal with the business entailed?
§ Sir R. SANDERSThe approximate figures are: July, 1914, 455,800; June, 1921, 576,000. The size of the War Office staff must be determined by the volume of business to be transacted and at the present moment the intake of correspondence from without over which therefore the Department has no control is more than four times what it was before the War, while the staff is less than three times the size. The work of liquidating the arrears of the War, of reorganising the military forces of the Crown, and of administering the Army which is still scattered in many foreign stations, imposes a heavy strain on a staff greatly taxed by the exertions of the War. Reductions are being steadily and progressively made as work diminishes, and since the Armistice no fewer than 17,000 have been retrenched.