§ 104. Commander Purseyasked the First Lord of the Admiralty the number of paymaster cadets entered, and the number of officers commissioned from the ranks in this branch, in the years 1939 to 1945 inclusive, and the totals.
Mr. DugdaleI am having inquiries made concerning the notice to which the hon. Member refers. Although the release of writers is behind the average for the Navy, the position is improving and by July they are expected to be only eight groups behind. This improvement results from the large number of writers who are being entered and trained. Since June, 1945, 1,700 writer ratings have completed training in this country and a further 520 are still undergoing training. In addition many ratings have trained abroad as writers or have been employed on writer duties. The writer branch of the Navy is shouldering a heavy responsibility in. connection with demobilisation and, much as I regret it, it will, I fear, still be necessary to retain a number of writers with special experience to ensure the smooth working of the release machinery. I am doing, and will continue to do, all in my power to speed up release of the writer branch but I am not in a position at present to say how soon the rate of release of writers by Groups will be equal to that of other branches.
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