§ 73. Commander Nobleasked the Secretary of State for Air whether he will re-open the trade of meteorological assistant in the R.A.F. in order to accelerate the release of meteorological personnel.
§ 74. Mr. Rentonasked the Secretary of State for Air whether he is aware of the slow rate of release of meteorologists in the R.A.F. and that it takes only six weeks to train them; and whether he will take steps to have more meteorologists trained so as to obtain a normal rate of release for those now serving.
§ Mr. P. Noel-BakerAs I said on 19th of March, in reply to the hon. Member for Westmorland (Mr. Vane) we have recently offered improved conditions of service to civilian meteorologists. Over 100 have been recruited in the last six weeks and we are pressing on with recruiting as fast as we can. Six weeks is the time spent in the Meterological School, but the total time of training is three months. For this reason, to reopen the trade of meteorologist in the R.A.F. would not improve the present rate of release, but we are considering 21W doing so in order to make use of the skill of trained meteorological assistants who are called up for national service.