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REPORT ON THE NAVY'S UTILIZATION

OF ITS CIVILIAN MANPOWER

PREPARED BY

THE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT
SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

AT THE REQUEST OF

HON. DAVID I. WALSH

Chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs
United States Senate

PRESENTED BY

MR. WALSH OF MASSACHUSETTS

JANUARY 11, 1944.-Ordered to be printed with illustrations

UNITED STATES

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1944

LETTER OF SUBMITTAL

THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY,
Washington, D. C., January 8, 1944.

Hon. DAVID I. WALSH,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR WALSH: This will acknowledge receipt of your letter of December 28, stating that you and other members of the Senate have received occasional complaints that there is idleness, loafing, and overmanning of civilian employees in naval shore establishments, and requesting a report on these alleged conditions.

This office has received similar complaints from time to time and every such complaint has been investigated by competent naval authorities at my personal direction. This whole problem has been of deep personal concern to me as it is fully realized a nation at war cannot afford to waste manpower.

As you will note from the attached report, some idle or stand-by time is unavoidable due to the nature of the work in connection with the repair of battle-damaged combatant ships and the necessity for training thousands of new workers on the job, together with the everchanging war program which makes it impossible in most instances to do production planning in advance. Nevertheless, this office does not maintain a "holier than thou" attitude and admits there is room for improvement. The necessity for expanding the Navy's civilian personnel over 900 percent in such a brief period, during a tight labor market, obviously created some inefficiencies. Frankly, the obtaining of maximum utilization of all personnel is one of the Navy's most difficult problems.

Much progress has been made, and on the whole I feel proud of the improvement that has been obtained, and this matter will continue to receive my close personal attention. Rest assured any suggestion you or any members of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee may have in this regard will be deeply appreciated and if there is any further information or material that would be of assistance to you, this office will be glad to submit it.

Thanking you for the opportunity of giving the committee a report on this most important problem and with kindest personal regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,

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