§ 19. Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been directed to the fact that captains while in command of a company lese their third star if they are wounded and sent home; whether he is aware that there is very general discontent with an 2656 arrangement whereby an officer is a captain while fitted for active service, but if wounded on active service and sent home is deprived of captain's rank and pay and reduced to the rank and pay of a lieutenant and must, on returning to duty, take his chance of being promoted again; whether a captain, while in command of a company of the Special Brigade Royal Engineers, holds his rank on these conditions, although in this brigade there is only one captain to a full company, who frequently, with Infantry help, has as many as 1,600 men in his charge; and whether steps will be taken to rectify this state of affairs by making captains in command of companies in all cases temporary captains without liability, through no fault of their own, to revert to the rank of temporary lieutenants?
§ Mr. FORSTERI am not quite clear as to the points to which the hon. and learned Member refers, but I will inquire into them and will communicate with him. Perhaps he would furnish me with particulars if he has any specific case in mind.