§ DR. CLARKasked the Secretary of State for War, If Quartermasters are at present ineligible, by War Office Regulations, for employment in the Pay, Ordnance, Commissariat, and Prison Departments; and, if so, on what grounds those officers are debarred from appointments in. these Departments?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY, WAR DEPAETMENT (Mr. H. S. NORTHCOTE)There is no rule absolutely prohibiting such appointments; but, practically, quartermasters are ineligible for appointment in all the departments, because, as a rule, they are too old to be appointed to the junior grades. When the Army Pay Department was formed, it was deliberately intended that it 422 should act in relief of the compulsory retirement to which captains were liable. With this view, appointments were restricted to lieutenants and captains. As quartermasters can serve till 55 years of age, the same reason for opening the department to them does not exist.