§ Mr. W. J. Brownasked the First Lord of the Admiralty why naval officers are employed at Royal Navy air stations on the recruitment, payment, etc., of civilian industrial personnel; and whether he will arrange for this work to be performed by civilian staff.
Mr. AlexanderR.N. air stations are training and operational units of the Fleet Air Arm and are therefore administered as Fleet establishments. Civilian employees form only a small proportion of the total numbers borne. It is, therefore, administratively convenient and economical that work on purely local matters affecting them such as recruitment, should be handled by the administrative machine of the station. It would not be economical to employ civilian officers solely for this work.