§ CAPTAIN NORTONI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether he can state if officers of the Army Medical Staff are obliged to retire at an earlier age than combatant officers, although they enter the Army several years older on an average; whether the rule regarding promotion to the rank of major-general has been applied to medical officers to the extent that they are ineligible for promotion after attaining the age of 57; and why the rule permitting all major-generals to serve on to 62 is not also made applicable to all surgeon-generals, seeing that such an 87 extension of service would be economical to the State?
MR. POWELL WILLIAMSIn the combatant ranks colonels retire at 57 years of age, and major-generals at 62. In the Army Medical Staff the age of 60 holds for both ranks. The medical officers have, therefore, the advantage of three years in one rank, while they lose two years in the other. Medical officers are not ineligible for promotion to the rank of surgeon-general after the age of 57, if recommended by the Promotion Board as possessing exceptional abilities. As a general rule, however, promotion to the rank of surgeon-general is only given to officers who have at least three years to serve. The Secretary of State is advised that, having regard to all the conditions involved, it would not be desirable to extend the rule under which major-generals are allowed to serve on to 62 to all surgeon-generals.