§ Mr. Swinglerasked the Secretary of State for War if he will give figures showing the size of the Regular Army on 1st January in each of the last 10 years, excluding those men serving on three-year engagements.
§ Mr. SoamesFollowing is the information. I take the Regular Army for this purpose to exclude National Service officers and men. Officers on short-service engagements, Regulars retained and reservists recalled for Korea and Suez, the women's Services and boys, in addition to men not committed to serve for longer than three years, are excluded.
1st January Officers Other ranks 1949 … … 15,867 122,845 1950 … … 16,479 127,602 1951 … … 16,898 137,513 1952 … … 17,369 149,020 1953 … … 17,893 125,811 1954 … … 18,432 94,029 1955 … … 18,729 85,256 1956 … … 18,837 77,635 1957 … … 18,758 73,305 1958 … … 18,698 80,341
§ Mr. Swinglerasked the Secretary of State for War if he will give his estimates of the size of the Regular Army on 1st January in each of the next five years, based upon the current level of recruitment.
§ Mr. SoamesNo. For reasons which I explained in my Estimates speech, it would be unsound to base a forecast for years ahead on the figures for three months' recruiting.