§ MR. HANBURY TRACYsaid, he would beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether, in framing his scheme of Retirement, he has taken into consideration the case of the Reserved Commanders M N, who appear to have been reserved under the same conditions and by the same Order in Council as the Reserved Captains F G; and if he will state what difference exists between the two classes?
§ MR. CHILDERSIn reply, Sir, to my hon. Friend, I have to say that in framing the plan of retirement we carefully considered the case of the M N reserved commanders, with the other lists of reserved or retired officers. But there is no analogy between their case and that of the reserved F G captains. Captains on the active list were all entitled to become admirals or retired admirals by seniority, and the F G captains claimed this equally under the words of the Order in Council. No ommander has any right to be promoted to captain's rank, all such promotions being by selection.