§ Mr. CAVEasked the First Lord of the Admiralty, with reference to the case of Colonel Brabazon, whether, as the Admiralty do not dispute that Colonel Brabazon on being appointed Deputy Naval Ordnance officer retained his rights as an Army officer, and could not be invalided out of the service without the finding of a military medical board, that in his case there was no such finding, and the War Office, on being informed of the circumstances, did not consider it possible to gazette him to half-pay, and that the Admiralty, nevertheless, purported to put him on half-pay from the 16th August, 1908, to the 29th June, 1909, with a consequent loss to him of £283 10s., their Lordships will now reconsider their decision, and cause the above sum to be made good to Colonel Brabazon; and, if not, on what ground that sum can be withheld from him without infringing his admitted rights?
§ Mr. McKENNAI would remind the hon. and learned Gentleman of my reply to his question on this subject of the 9th March last, and of the second part of my reply to a further question on the 15th May. It is the practice of the War Office to gazette the placing of officers on half-pay, and they did not consider it possible to antedate a notice in the Gazette in the case of Colonel Brabazon. It is not the Admiralty practice, and Colonel Brabazon was paid his half-pay without a Gazette notice to that effect. I am not aware that the publication of the dates of half-pay in the Gazette can be1346W regarded as a privilege, or that any right possessed by Colonel Brabazon has been infringed.