§ MR. PLUNKET (Dublin University)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War why the recommendation of Lord Camperdown's Committee of 1889 (paragraph 34, page 9 of Report) to the effect that—
Medical officers on leave, in consequence of disease contracted in and by the Service, should be entitled to the same privileges as combatant officers,has not been carried out in its entirety; whether Surgeon Captain Sawyer, having lost his health in the execution of his duty in India, and, having in consequence been sent home on half-pay for six months, he was passed over for promotion and had 65 junior officers promoted over him on the ground that no portion of time on half-pay is reckoned towards promotion; and whether the case of Surgeon Captain Sawyer will be re-considered, having regard to the fact that the Regulation under which he thus lost his promotion has been declared to be unjust, and has been amended?
§ * MR. CAMPBELL-BANNERMANFull effect has been given to the recommendation referred to; but a change of that character could not be made retrospective without the most serious disturbance of the seniority list. At the time Surgeon Captain Sawyer was placed on half-pay his time on half-pay did not count as service for promotion, although it would do so in a similar case at present. I am afraid nothing can now be done to help him.