§ 14. Mr. LOUGHasked the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware of the number of cases in which Territorial officers who have not left England have been given temporary rank higher than that of senior officers who have been more than a year at the front; whether such officers lose their temporary rank and get reduced pay if they are transferred to the battalions on foreign service; and, if so, whether he will endeavour to rectify a system under which the promotion and the pay are in ratio to the experience and the risk?
§ Mr. FORSTERThis is a matter of some intricacy, which can hardly be dealt with fully in answer to a question. I will, therefore, with my right hon. Friend's permission, send him a copy of a War Office letter which states the matter clearly and in detail. I may say, however, that promotions to complete establishment of units at home are only temporary, and that when an officer holding temporary rank at home goes out to join a unit with an Expeditionary Force, his rank is readjusted according to his precedence in the unit he joins. I cannot accept the state- 850 ment in the last part of the question as a correct description of the system followed.
§ Sir JOHN JARDINECan the hon. Gentleman say whether subalterns in a Territorial battalion in this country, who when the War began did not volunteer for active service but found employment at home, are sent out as captains to the battalion in the campaign, say, in Mesopotamia, with the effect that they take precedence in rank over subalterns and captains who may for a year or more have undergone the usual dangers and hardships of war?
§ Mr. FORSTERI think I had better also send my hon. Friend a copy of the letter which deals with the whole question.
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