§ SIR CARNE RASCH (Essex, Chelmsford)To ask the Secretary of State for War if he can explain why Captain Clutterbuck and Captain Pepys were transferred to the Essex Regiment, now serving in Burmah, Captain Pepys having less service than four captains and nine subalterns now serving in the regiment.
324 (Answered by Mr. Secretary Haldane.) In consequence of the reduction of the battalion of the West India Regiment and Royal Warwickshire Regiment, to which these officers respectively belonged, they became supernumerary, and their transfer was imperative. There were about 200 officers similarly situated, and the Army Council decided that when transferred the officers of all the 325 reduced regiments should get the benefit of their seniority, and that these supernumeraries should be distributed as equally as possible throughout the infantry of the Army. Every consideration was given to the comparative age and service of officers transferred with that of the officers over whose heads they went in their new regiment, but it was manifestly impossible in many instances to prevent the supersession of officers older and of longer service.