HL Deb 19 February 1883 vol 276 cc281-3
THE EARL OF POWIS

rose to ask the Under Secretary of State for War—(1), When the existing vacancies in the list of general officers of the Line would be filled up? and (2), Whether the "special recommendations" required by Article 20 of the Royal Warrant as to officers promoted by selection were made in writing and recorded in the War Department? He said, that last autumn a new practice had been introduced; vacancies were kept open for a considerable time, and might have remained open still longer were it not for the Egyptian Gazette. He was not going to touch upon the promotions on account of the Egyptian campaign, which were made under special circumstances, and under another Article; but the War Office must have known the exact date at which the vacancies to which he referred would occur, and they ought to have been filled up at once. He was not going to say a word upon the question of selection; he took the Warrant as he found it, and his Questions were for information as to the mode in which it was carried on. The Warrant said that any qualified colonel might be recommended for promotion as major-general, and all promotions were to be approved by the Secretary of State for War, so that the responsibility rested with him. It was only the initiatory step that was taken by the Commander-in-Chief. As our Army was the only one in Europe which had a civilian and politician and not a soldier at its head, it was a safeguard for officers that the initiatory recommendations should be given for military and not political reasons. They all knew the pressure which might be put upon Ministers by Members of Parliament, and that led him to the second Question, Whether the officers promoted by selection were recommended specially as required by the Warrant, and in what form these recommendations were made; whether they were in writing, and whether they were preserved as documents for future reference? The special recommendation was an important part of the matter, because the Warrant went on to say that in the absence of special recommendation the promotion should be given to the senior colonel. On the occasion to which he referred, out of 13 officers six were taken and seven left. No. 1 was promoted. No. 2 was not, though he had served in the Burmese War, had been twice wounded, and had commanded a brigade in the field. Nos. 3 and 4 were promoted. No. 5 was passed over, though he had commanded a regimental district, a command which was one of absolute selection, and was always given to a meritorious officer. The sixth was promoted; the seventh was passed over, though he had served in the Crimea, in India and New Zealand, where he was severely wounded in storming a pah, the officer in command of the regiment having lost his life. The eighth was promoted; the ninth, who had served long and commanded a regiment, was passed over. The tenth, who had been Aide-de-Camp to the Queen, was passed over. At present there were nine Aides-de-Camp to the Queen selected from the Line, and it seemed extraordinary that an Aide-de-Camp of the Queen should be passed over as not qualified to command in the field. The eleventh had served in South Africa; but a General who had served in West Africa and had not commanded in the field was put over his head. Anyone taking up the Gazette would imagine that these officers had been passed over once. But the fact was that one officer had been passed over five times, another three times, another twice, and four officers once. He thought it desirable that these vacancies should be filled up as they occurred. To the two Questions of which he had given Notice, he would add a third, and would ask, How many of the officers who had been passed over were permanently disqualified for promotion from not having been reported as qualified to command in the field?

THE EARL OF MORLEY

said, he had occasion to complain, not of these Questions, but of the speech which the noble Lord had founded upon them. He was perfectly ready to give Answers to Questions; but the noble Earl had not given any previous indication that he was going to refer to matters which were foreign to the Questions which he had placed on the Paper, and to make an attack against the principle of selection; and he further complained that it was extremely inconvenient and very unusual to discuss the qualification of officers who might be selected or not selected for commands from the general list of officers. The responsibility for those appointments rested with the Secretary of State for War, on the recommendation of the illustrious Duke, whose reasons for making them could not be publicly canvassed. He must decline, therefore, to enter into the cases brought forward and described by the noble Earl, for though the noble Earl very properly did not mention any names it was obvious to all to whom he referred. With respect to the first Question put by the noble Earl he was unable to give any answer at present, as the matter was still under consideration, and until the communications at present going on with the Treasury were completed, he was quite unable to say what would be done. As to the second Question, he might mention that only two appointments, such as the noble Earl referred to, had been made up to the present time, and in those cases the recommendations were not in writing. The illustrious Duke and the Secretary for War conferred together, and then they determined which officers deserved promotion and they were promoted. It would be very difficult to state the reasons for the promotions. The fact that the promotions were made by selection was, of course, very clearly marked, but there was no special recommendation in writing. No such recommendation was required by the Royal Warrant. The Warrant had been strictly complied with. As to the last Question, he could not keep in his head the exact position of every general officer on the List; but the noble Earl seemed to assume that certain officers who were kept in the list of colonels were disqualified for future promotion. The case was, that when a colonel was recommended for promotion, and not till then, the illustrious Duke, in making his recommendation, stated that the officer recommended for promotion was competent to command in the field.