§ MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether he is aware that all assistant engineers entering the Navy for temporary services were supplied with a circular saying that they would be treated in all 1464 respects as assistant engineers on the permanent list entering from Keyham College, and like them would be promoted on passing a qualifying examination after six years service; whether under the memorandum of 1903 the position of engineer officers was improved as regards promotion, so as to assimilate it with that of executive officers; whether he will state why the accelerated rate of promotion, according to which the engineer officers on the permanent list are promoted after three years, has not been extended to the officers entered for temporary service; and whether, if necessary, an Order in Council could be introduced in order to effect this.
(Answered by Mr. Edmund Robertson.) The regulations which were supplied to these officers on entry did not contain any statement to this effect. They stated—(a) that "an assistant engineer for temporary service who passes the necessary examination will be promoted to the rank of engineer on the permanent list after six years service provided that his conduct as regards zeal and ability has been in all respects satisfactory; (b) engineers promoted from the list of assistant engineers for temporary service will be treated in all respects as other engineers, except as to counting junior service." It is a fact that under the memorandum of 1903 the position of engineer officers as regards promotion was improved, but it was not considered either necessary or desirable to extend these concessions to assistant engineers for temporary service, the six years being treated as a period of probation in their case. It is not, therefore, proposed to obtain authority for any change in the regulations under which these officers entered.