§ CAPTAIN PRICEasked the Secretary of State for War, Whether it was correct that certain Staff Officers of Pensioners who were Brevet Majors, had been refused promotion, although it was still continued to other officers of the same department, who were in some cases their juniors in point of length of service; and, if so, whether he would grant promotion to these officers for length of service, as in the case of officers of Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Marines, and thus secure to them the advantages they held previously to July 1881, and under which conditions they, the Staff Officers of Pensioners, accepted their appointments?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONNo, Sir; brevet promotion has not been given to other officers in the same Department junior to those brevet majors to whom it has been refused. When these officers were appointed Staff Officers of Pensioners they had the right, being brevet majors, of succeeding as vacancies occurred to brevet lieutenant colonelcies; but the promotion carried neither increased pay, nor retired pay. Successional brevet promotion was abolished from the 1st of July, 1881, and these officers are consequently debarred from attaining the rank of lieutenant-colonel while serving. On the other hand, they now obtain that honorary rank when they retire, and their maximum retired pay has been increased from £292 to £350 a-year. Under these circumstances, I am not prepared to depart from the decision of my Predecessor, which was adverse to the grant of rank to these officers.