§ MR. FETHERSTONHAUGHTo ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to the practice of appointing non-commissioned officers from other branches of the service to be warrant officers of the Army Ordnance Corps, though there are in the Army Ordnance Corps plenty of qualified men; in how many instances in the past ten years have such appointments been made; and will he take steps to secure to the men of the Army Ordnance Corps the preferential right to promotions in their own corps over outsiders.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) This practice was adopted in 1896 on the recommendation of a Committee, and the appointments were divided equally between the non-commissioned officers of the Army Ordnance Corps and those of the rest of the Army. In 1904, owing to the increase of non-commissioned officers in the Army Ordnance Corps, it was decided to give them appointments in the proportion of four to three given to the other non-commissioned officers. Eighty-two outside appointments have been made in the past ten years out of a total of 170. It is not proposed to make any alteration in the present system.