§ COLONEL DUNCAN (Finsbury, Holborn)asked the Secretary of State for War, Whether he is aware that staff paymasters holding the rank of Major for five years are debarred from promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel, such as is given to officers of the same rank and service in the Ordnance Store Department and Commissariat and Transport Corps, and that this hardship is all the greater because a step of rank 1732 on retirement will no longer be given after the 31st December in the present year?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. E. STANHOPE) (Lincolnshire, Horncastle)It is impossible, within the limits of an answer to a Question, to enter into a comparison of the manner in which various Rules affect different Departments, the conditions of whose service are by no means similar. I would, however remind my hon. and gallant Friend that the Regulations embodied in the New Warrant were arrived at after the most careful and exhaustive consideration, lasting over a period of some months; and I do not think it would be advisable to alter, in any important particular, decisions thus arrived at, within three months of their publication, except in very special circumstances. But my hon. and gallant Friend will understand that I have not yet had time personally to consider the subject from all points of view.