HC Deb 01 June 1932 vol 266 cc1164-5W
Mr. WEST RUSSELL

asked the First Lord of the Admiralty for what reasons the Admiralty now maintains a clerical staff nearly double what it was before the outbreak of war?

Sir B. EYRES MONSELL

At the Admiralty, as in any other Department or business, the clerical staff is ancillary to the higher staff—professional, technical and administrative—and must be considered in relation to the latter. The increase in the Admiralty clerical staff as compared with 1914 does not bear more than a due proportion to the increase that has been found necessary in the higher staff. The reasons why the Admiralty require a larger staff in all to-day than in 1914 have been explained in great detail on several occasions. Some of the main reasons for the larger Admiralty staff are the following:

  1. (1) Largely increased duties, due partly to legislation and Government decisions since 1914, partly to the greater difficulty and complexity of nearly all business since the War, and partly to such post-War developments as the League of Nations, International Conferences, and more frequent Imperial Conferences.
    2. 1165
  2. (2) The revolution in naval material, due to the necessity for providing both for and against air, submarine and mine warfare; great developments in naval guns, projectiles, torpedoes, radio-telegraphy, electrical and other machinery; the substitution of oil fuel for coal.
  3. (3) Owing to the greater complication in the equipment of modern ships, the personnel of the Fleet is more specialized and subdivided, thus rendering the work of administering it more difficult and laborious.
  4. (4) Much new work has resulted from numerous changes making for the greater contentment and welfare of the men, and all questions affecting the lower deck and industrial staffs are more closely and sympathetically studied.
  5. (5) The naval staff, of which only a bare nucleus existed in 1914, is now more adequately organised.
  6. (6) A scientific staff has been added, whose function is to bring scientific research and experiment to bear upon naval problems.
  7. (7) Much work formerly done by contractors is now done in Admiralty establishments, e.g., the manufacture of naval cordite and torpedoes, and the production of Admiralty charts.
  8. (8) There is a closer scrutiny of proposals for new expenditure, and of all items of cost of existing services, in view of the great need for economy; and up-to-date methods of checking costs, involving the employment of professional accountants and technical costs officers have been introduced.
  9. (9) The serious under-staffing existing in almost all Admiralty Departments in 1914 has been to a large extent remedied.