OFFICERS WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 50, 1 March 1937, Page 15

OFFICERS WANTED

AIR FORCE & MARINE

AN IMMEDIATE NEED

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON,. February 3.

The- Admiralty and the Royal Air Force, in pursuance of their expansion schemes, are .both offering commissions on supplementary lists to executive officers of the Mercantile Marine. The Admiralty offers immediate commissions to many executive officers in the Royal Naval Reserve, as some years must elapse before the normal flow of officer entries takes effect. In the case of the Royal Air Force, the offer, is limited to officers between the ages of 30 and 35 who hold a master's or second mate's certificate. They are required to serve for marine craft duties. This offer carries with" it a maximum salary of £400 a year.

The Admiralty's offer is restricted to men between the ages of 21 and 30. The rates of pay offered are identical with those for R.N. officers of corresponding rank who joined from Dartmouth or by special entry. Lieutenants under 28 will receive pay of 13s 6d a day. The first increase to 15s 4d a day will be after four years or at age 28, whichever is earlier. From this point increments will be at the same intervals as existing lieutenants' and lieutenant-commanders' scale. Retirement will be at the age of 45.' Retired pay will be at the rate of £250 a year, with additions or deductions of £12 a year for each full year in excess or short of 15 years' serivce in the Royal Navy from the date of transfer—a maximum of £358 a year.

It has been found that, as a result of, the expansion of the Service there is a very definite shortage of officers of lieutenant rank. "Although every effort is being made to speed up the training of, the normal entries from the public schools and elsewhere, additional recruits from this source will not be available for some years.' The need is immediate. The authorities, therefore, are appealing to R.N.R. officers now serving in the Mercantile Marine to "fill the breach," and have offered them permanent' commissions. Copies of the scheme are being sent to every R.N.R.' officer eligible for consideration.

Not since 1895 has the Admiralty made a similar appeal. In that year a supplementary list of lieutenants and sub-lieutenants was opened to enable R.N.R. officers to transfer to the Royal Navy. The first batch of such officers was known unofficially as "The.Hungary Hundred." Many subsequently achieved high rank in the service. Among other distinguished officers still on the active list who were originally trained for the Merchant Navy is Admiral Sir E. R. G. R. Evans—"Evans of the: Broke"—C.-in-C. at the Nore.