§ SIR CARNE RASCH (Essex, Chelmsford)To ask the Secretary of State for War if his attention has been called to the system under which colonels retired for age in the Royal Marine Light Infantry are granted the honorary rank of major-general; and whether he will consider the advisability of applying this rule to substantive Army colonels retired for age as well as to offices who have lost rank and pension owing to the warrant of January 1st, 1901.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold-Forster.) The decision to abolish the honorary rank of major-general on re- 440 tirement was the result of a very careful and prolonged consideration of the various issues involved. This decision was subsequently reconsidered, and ultimately maintained by my predecessors, and I am not prepared to depart from the conclusions at which they arrived.