§ SIR ROBERT HOBART (Hampshire, New Forest)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will state the estimated charge that would be placed upon the taxes if majors in the Army, who have been passed over for the appointment of second in command by reason of their now holding staff appointments, were at once placed on the list of officers extra-regimentally employed, instead of being retained, as at present, on the lists of regiments; and also whether he will state the present system on which these officers are eventually placed on the special list of officers extra-regimentally employed.
(Answered by Mr Secretary Raldane.) At the present moment there are only four officers so situated, and the immediate extra cost of placing them on an extra-regimental list would be £400 a year. Further, on vacating their staff appointments they would be placed on half-pay and so would increase the Non-effective Vote, but the calculation of this latter cost would, at the present moment, be impracticable. As regards the last part of the Question, as these officers have foregone further regimental promotion, the only way by which they can reach the extra-regimentally employed list, is by promotion in due course to half-pay lieutenant-colonelcies.