§ SIR ROBERT HOBART (Hampshire, New Forest)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether he will give consideration to the claims of those colonels whose prospects of promotion and pensions were injured by the Royal Warrant of 1st January, 1901; whether he will give due weight to the promise made by the late Mr. Stanhope, when Secretary for War, duly recorded at the War Office, on which these officers have relied, i.e., that the system of promotion by selection to fill an appointment would not be brought into force until the number of general officers on the active list was reduced to 100, which limit has never been reached; whether, as all these colonels are purchase officers, he will also remember the promise of the late Mr. Gladstone that he would rule any doubt in their favour; and whether, as the number of these colonels is now small, all of whom held important appointments at Home during the South African War, he will at least grant their promotion to the higher honorary rank of major-general, even if financial exigencies preclude the possibility of the higher pension as major-general.
§ MR. HALDANEThe decision to abolish the honorary rank of major-general on retirement 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 525 depart from the conclusions at which they arrived.
§ SIR KOBKRT HOBARTI will take an early opportunity of drawing attention to this matter.