§ 29. Mr. NIELDasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that junior officers in the Royal Engineers, who having completed their full training period at Woolwich and taken their commissions, in some cases upwards of twelve months before the commencement of the War, and who have ever since been on active service at the front, have been kept without promotion, while others who have obtained temporary commissions in the same branch of the service since the War have in numerous cases been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and occasionally to captain over the heads of such first-named officers; and whether he will take steps to remove this alleged grievance by promotions in suitable cases so ante-dated as to preserve seniority?
§ Mr. TENNANTPromotion must be made with reference to the requirements of the unit concerned. If some temporarily commissioned officers at home have been advanced in rank when they have less service than permanently commissioned officers of the same rank, this will be because it is not possible to withdraw officers from the front to fill vacancies in higher ranks at home in the New Armies. The promotion of the permanent Royal Engineer officers has, however, been considerably accelerated since the outbreak of the War, and measures are being elaborated which will have the effect of giving promotion to the officers to whom the hon. Gentleman particularly alludes.