§ MR. GABBETTasked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether every officer promoted to Chief Engineer in the Royal Navy becomes at once senior to upwards of eighty Paymasters to whom he was previously junior, and whether this seniority injuriously affects the latter officers as to their accommodation whilst on passage in transports and troopships; and, whether the relative rank of Paymasters and Assistant Paymasters will be considered by their Lordships at the same time as that of Engineer Officers?
§ SIR THOMAS BRASSEYA chief engineer on promotion takes rank above paymasters of less than eight years' seniority, and would then necessarily pass over many paymasters. This question of relative rank, however, is extremely complicated; and it is quite possible that the chief engineer, whose promotion is slower than that of the accountant officer, is senior in the Service, having become an assistant engineer before the accountant officer became an assistant paymaster.