§ 27. Mr. J. MASONasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether the step of temporary rank given to officers commanding battalions for thirty days or more and to subalterns commanding companies for thirty days or more dates from the first day of the command or from the thirty-first day?
§ Mr. TENNANTFrom the thirty-first day.
§ Mr. PETOIs it not a fact that no officers from the Cavalry have yet been gazetted, and that some of these officers have been in command for seven months or more?
§ Mr. TENNANTThat may be perfectly true, but it arises from the fact that we have been waiting for the lists from the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief.
§ 88. Mr. MASONasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether, when a senior officer is taken prisoner or reported missing and a temporary new rank is necessary, the step goes throughout the unit, so that in the case of a lieutenant-colonel being reported missing or a prisoner the senior major becomes a temporary lieutenant-colonel, the senior captain a temporary major, and the senior subaltern a temporary captain; and whether, when a senior officer is promoted and his duties take him away from his regiment or battalion, as when a lieutenant-colonel is promoted to be a brigadier-general, the senior major is promoted to be a temporary lieutenant-colonel, and the senior subaltern is promoted to be a temporary captain, but no temporary promotion is given to the senior captain and, if so, for what reasons are senior captains promoted temporarily in the one case and passed over in the other?
§ Mr. TENNANTThe answer to the first two parts of the question is in the affirmative. In answer to the last part of the question, the reason is that in one case the captain is promoted into a vacancy in the Establishment, in the other case he is not.