PARKINSON'S LAW

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29154, 15 March 1960, Page 11

PARKINSON'S LAW

Application To RAK. (Special Correspondent NZ.PA.) (Ree. 10 p.m.) LONDON, March 13. How many sergeants comprise a mess? This was one of the problems the House of Commons was invited to consider when the service votes were under discussion. There were complaints from both sides of the House that the proportion of n.c.o’s and officers to other ranks was top-heavy. , Mr Geoffrey de Freitas (Labour. Morcambe) said that the Royal Air Force, now totalling 174,000 men, had 240 officers with the rank of air commodore or higher. In 1939, when the R.A.F. totalled 114,000 men, there were 84 air commodores and above. This, he said, was bad for the service and bad for the taxpayer. Mr Legge Bourke (Conservative, Isle of Ely) said that when he visited the rocket base ih his constituency, he found only' one aircraftman. “I felt rather sorry for the fellow surrounded by so many stripes that he must have imagined himself on a zebra, crossing.” Mr William Taylor, the Undersecretary for Air, said it was unreasonable to expect the top rank structure to be exactly proportionate to the total service strength. Substantial numbers of air rank posts were for international treaty commitments and research, and development Some were asked for and paid by Commonwealth governments. He agreed that the proportion of nx.o.’s at the rocket base mentioned was rather high—“l have never in my life seen so many sergeants in one place as I saw in the sergeants’ mess there”— but the reason was that such bases had to be manned quickly by experts and it would take a little time to get the balance restored and train other men to do the job.