LUXURY AT SANDHURST

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 886, 1 February 1930, Page 6

LUXURY AT SANDHURST

180 SERVANTS FOR 490 CADETS EXPENSIVE ESTABLISHMENT Questions regarding the cost of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Berkshire, and the large civilian staff employed there, w-ere asked w-hen Sir Herbert J. Creedy, Permanent Undersecretary at the War Office, gave evidence at the House of Lords recently before the Royal Commission on the Civil Service. The commission is inquiring into the conditions of service, rates of pay and other questions, says a London exchange. During Sir Herbert Creedy’s evidence, Mr. F. W. Goldstone, a member of the commission, pointed out that for 490 cadets being trained at Sandhurst for commissions in the Army, there was a civilian staff of 304, including 51 grooms, 130 servants, butlers and waiters. “Do you know of any college at a

university where 130 servants are employed for 490 undergraduates?” he asked. Sir Herbert replied that there was military discipline the whole time at Sandhurst, the cadets had to be taught drill, and they had their own recitation rooms and playing-fields on a scale quite different from that at an Oxford college. Mr. Goldstone: And 51 grooms. Mr. Goldstone said the average annual cost a head at Sandhurst was £453, and he thought that that could be reduced by inquiry into the number of servants and grooms kept there. Mr. Goldstone also alluded to the fact that while the Army had been reduced the department’s staff had increased. “What practical steps have been taken to effect economy?” he asked. Sir Herbert Creedy replied that a reduction in the Army did not necessarily carry with it a corresponding reduction in the staff at the War Office. Among the reasons was the complexity of the modern army, with its tanks, guns and mechanisation.

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