§ Mr. ASHTONasked the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been drawn to the stagnation of promotion amongst the officers of the West India Regiment, especially amongst the subalterns, consequent upon the strength of the regiment having been twice reduced in the last eight years; whether, under the existing conditions, many of the officers now serving will attain the age of forty-five years without promotion, and be superannuated on a pension; and whether, seeing that rapid promotion in this regiment used to be considered a just compensation for continuous service in hot and unhealthy climates, he proposes taking any measures for ameliorating the hardships caused by the entire stoppage of promotion, such as by basing promotion on length of service, as in the Indian Army, Royal Engineers, and Army Service Corps, or by giving special promotions to the seniors, and utilising their services elsewhere until required for duty with their own unit?
§ Mr. HALDANEI am aware of the slowness of promotion among these subalterns, and every effort has been, and is being, made to mitigate hardships in individual cases. I must, however, point out that within the last three months two lieutenants have been given regimental and one extra regimental promotion and three second lieutenants have been promoted. As the organisation of this regiment is similar to that of any other regiment of Infantry of the Line there does not appear to be any sound ground for 579W introducing an exceptional system of promotion into this regiment. There is no present intention of specially employing senior officers of the regiment extra regimentally.