§ 22. Sir W. CHEYNEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty whether he is aware that in the April Navy List only four officers are shown under the heading of surgeon rear-admiral, and that no surgeon captains have, been promoted to fill the two vacancies created by the retirement in February last of Surgeon Rear-Admiral Dimsey, D.S.O., and the addition of one surgeon rear-admiral to the list as announced in March, and whether he is aware of any reason why surgeon captains should not be promoted at once, on the occurrence of vacancies in the same way as captains in the executive branch are promoted to fill vacancies in the rear-admirals' list?
§ Sir J. CRAIGThe question of promoting officers to fill the vacancies on the surgeon rear-admirals' list is now under the consideration of the Board of Admiralty, and it is hoped to announce the promotions at an early date.
With regard to the second part of the question, the reason is that promotion to 376 the rank of surgeon rear-admiral is by selection, whereas promotion to rear-admiral is normally made by seniority.