Admiralty Strikes Flag

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30406, 3 April 1964, Page 11

Admiralty Strikes Flag

(Special Crspdt. N.Z.P.A.) . LONDON, April 2. The man who once resigned as Chancellor because he considered the Government was overspending, yesterday took control of more money and more people than anyone in the history of Britain—Mr Peter Thorneycroft, the Minister of Defence, aged 54. In his office on. the fifth floor of the new Ministry of Defence' in Whitehall—Britain’s pentagon, known as the quadragon, because it is foursided —he is responsible for the spending of at least £2OOO million this year and the command if 800,000 servicemen a- ? civilians.

The Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force are now all under one roof. Mr Thorneycroft has under him three Ministers, whose titles have been changed: Minister of Defence for the Royal Navy, Earl Jellicoe (formerly First Lord of the Admiralty); Minister of Defence for the Army, Mr James Ramsden (formerly Secretary of State for War); and Minister of Defence for the R.A.F., Mr Hugh Fraser (formerly Secretary of State for Air).

A year’s planning has gone into forming the new Ministry. The four Ministers and their

staff have moved in, but it will be a week before the chiefs of staffs are at their new desks.

Three months will elapse be-fo-e the last of the 3600 persons to work in the quadragon have arrived from their old offices. The Lord High Admiral’s flag, crimson with a gold anchor, which has flown day and night over the old Admiralty office for the last 336 years, and been lowered to half-mast only to mark the deaths of Edward VII, George V, and George VI, has been taken down. In future it will be flown only by the Queen when she steps aboard a warship.

The British Ministry of Transport has placed orders for two more sister ships for the logistic vessel Sir Lancelot (above) at a cost of £3.5 million.

The ships, each of 6400 tons, will closely follow the design for the prototype, Sir Lancelot, now in home waters on “working up” trials. The ships will have airconditioned accommodation for 370 troops and the crew. Military vehicles can be driven aboard at bow or stern. A helicopter flight deck is provided, and officers can watch landings by closedcircuit television. The “Scotsman’s” shipping correspondent says it is likely that tenders for three similar ships will be invited later to complete the replacement of the present fleet of 13 ageing L.S.T.s.