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I share with the Secretary of State: 9 May 1957
- DanBC 6y agoI forgot to mention why I posted this. It's the first mention of "spaceship" in Hansard (the UK record of speeches in parliament). > If there are no conscripts, where is the Service to get store clerks and pay section clerks? It cannot; so there must be mechanised accounting and a greater use of electronic devices. Not only can computers be used for pay but also for stock recording and calculating. Only a computer could work out this problem of seniority which is baffling personnel staff officers today. The problem is put in this way. If the crew of a spaceship travel to the nearest star and return at a speed of half the velocity of light, the journey will take seventeen years—they are all long-Service people. However, according to Sir George Thomson, to the crew it would be only 14½ years, and the loss of 2½ years of seniority in those circumstances would be particularly galling.