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inevitable condition and byproduct of a sound policy of manpower utilization.

The Navy had defended the nonutilization of Negroes in general service by citing the lower level of Negro skills and by appealing to the necessity of maintaining ship efficiency and ship morale.  It had discovered that, as individuals, Negroes could be trained and utilized in as wide a range of skills as whites, and that failure to use them as individuals resulted in a waste of manpower which neither the Navy nor the Country could afford.  Still driven by the imperative need for skilled men, the Navy had put Negro ratings aboard ship and found that no trouble resulted.  In defense of its new policy the Navy now cites the skills of its Negro manpower and ship efficiency.

The Committee Makes Recommendations to the Navy

Although the Committee found little to criticize in the new policy of the Navy with respect to training and assignment, it was concerned that the opportunities which the Navy offered had not attracted a larger number of Negroes to enlist for general service.

As of January 1, 1950-the date of the latest complete figures-the Negro enlisted strength was 15,747 out of a total of 330,098, or 47 percent.  Of this total Negro enlisted strength 6,647 were in general ratings and 9,110 in the messman's branch.  The percentage of Negroes in general ratings was exactly 2 percent.

the relatively small percentage of Negroes in general service could be partly attributed, the Committee believed, to a long memory of the Navy's earlier restrictive policy and to a general unawareness among Negroes that this policy had been discarded.  Since the impression seemed to prevail that the Navy lagged behind the other two services, the Committee believed the Navy should correct this impression.

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