STAFF REDUCTIONS WILL CAUSE SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS.

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 612, 17 August 1933, Page 3

STAFF REDUCTIONS WILL CAUSE SHORTAGE OF OFFICERS.

WARNING BY NAVAL MAN Wellington, Saturday. Beeause of the reduction in the size of merchant fleets, there is a tendency on the part of shipping companies to put off their younger officers and not engage any more. The serious shortage of masters that will result from this policy was the subject of a warning uttered by Captam C. Sinclair Thompson, R.N., when replying to the toast of "The Navy, at the Master Mariners' smoke concert to-ni'ght. . Captain Sinclair Thompson explamed the details of a scheme which he had had to put into effect, whereby officers were trained for the New Zeaiand division of the Royal Naval Reserve. A mercantile marine officer, after a months' preliminary training, was posted to one of the warships as ■a- lieutenant of the Royal Navy. He h'eld the joh for six months, after which he was replaced by another man, so that there was permanently in the complement of one of the ■cruisers an officer of the New Zeaiand 'Division of the Royal Naval Reserve. 'Captain Sinclair Thompson thought it was going to be a fine scheme, beeause it would bring officers of the local mercantile marine into touch with the Navy, and vice versa. One thing that caused the naval authorities serious thought, he said, was the age of the candidates. A sublieutenant was required tQ be under the oge o^ 26 and to have a mate's certificate, while a man with a master's certificate and up to 31 years of age was commissioned as a lieutenant. The authorities found that officers with masters' certificates were nearly all over 31 and there were no officers under 26 who qualified to come in as liuetenants. The reason for that was the reduction in the size of fleets and . the number of young officers who had been put off by sh'ipping companies. No company had suffered so badly ias the Admiralty from the reductton in the size of the Fleet, but in.

spite of the consequent surplus of officers the Admiralty had never considered not taking any more eadets. It seemed to him that that the shipping companies were laying up a store of trouble for themselves in the future, and it was serious to the Admiralty, beeause it might wreck the scheme of mercantile marine officers taking the place of Royal Navy officers in the New Zeaiand Division. "I cant' help thinking that, from an efficiency point of view, there is a bad time coming for the mercantile marine out here unless young officers are entered," he said. That affected the Company of Master Mariners, too, beeause "the budding master mariners were having a thin time at present. He knew what finance was, and he did not want to teach the shipping _ companies their jobs, but the Admiralty had 'always found that it paid to pension off some of the senior officers, at a little extra cost, to keep up the flow of promotion so essential for an efficient and contented service.