Hansard

Written Answers

Volume 266: debated on Wednesday 1 June 1932

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Written Answers

Admiralty (Clerical Staff)

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) 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) 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) 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) 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) The naval staff, of which only a bare nucleus existed in 1914, is now more adequately organised.
  • (6) A scientific staff has been added, whose function is to bring scientific research and experiment to bear upon naval problems.
  • (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) 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) The serious under-staffing existing in almost all Admiralty Departments in 1914 has been to a large extent remedied.

    • District Railway (Unclosed Carriage Doors)

    Sir J. FERGUSON

    asked the Minister of Transport if his attention has been directed to the dangerous practice of leaving carriage doors unclosed on the District Railway trains from Hounslow to the City, causing risk to school children and inconvenience to other passengers; and will he be prepared to enforce by law that all electric trains have automatic closing doors?

    Mr. PYBUS

    I have communicated with the railway company concerned. They are aware that railway carriage doors are occasionally left open as a result, for instance, of the carriages being entered, after the signal to start has been given, by passengers who fail to close the doors. As at present advised, I do not think that it would be practicable to require that all electric trains should be equipped with automatic closing doors.

    Severn River Barrage

    Mr. L. SMITH

    asked the Minister of Transport whether he has now received the report of the committee of the Economic Advisory Council investigating the question of the Severn River Barrage; if not, when he expects to receive it; and what has been the cost hitherto of carrying out these investigations?

    Mr. PYBUS

    The present stage of this inquiry has now been completed, and I understand that the Severn Barrage Committee of the Economic Advisory Council hope shortly to receive a report thereon from the Expert Sub-Committee under whose supervision these investigations have been carried out. The expenditure incurred since 1925 amounts to about £21,000, exclusive of £27,000 spent on the marine survey of the Severn Estuary by the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty. As this survey was carried out in substitution for work which would otherwise have been done by that Department, there has been no increased charge to public funds on this account.

    Treasury Bills

    Mr. JOEL

    asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury what was the average amount of Treasury Bills outstanding for the years 1900, 1913, 1919, 1925 and 1931?

    Major ELLIOT

    The average amounts of Treasury Bills outstanding for the years mentioned are as follow:

    £
    1900………18,633,000
    1913………11,250,000
    1919………965,879,000
    1925………610,154,000
    1931………615,905,000