Officers or Sergeants.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16210, 13 May 1918, Page 6

Officers or Sergeants.

The Defence Expenditure Commission had before it on Friday tho case of some Territorial officers belonging to the First Division, who for the better part of a year have refused" to relinauish their commissions on going to camp. Thoy were, it appears, called uj> for service under the condition that if thev were found unsuitable or if no vacancies existed for their appointment to the Expeditionary Force with commissioned rank, thoy would bo taken temporarily for service abroad as non-com-missioned. officers. This condition was rendered necessary by the fact that there is a surplus of officers, and that those particular individuals have had no war I experience. It did not, however, comI port with their dignity to accept these conditions, and they were accordingly given leave on pay, tho total amount paid to them up to the beginning of March being some £3000. . The excuse for this generosity seems to be that the Dofence Department felt itself in a somewhat awkward position, the provisions of the Military Service Act, which is no respecter of persons, appearing to clash with the contention of the officers concernod that they cannot be deprived of their commissions except by the finding of a court-mar-tial. It does not eeem to havo occurred to them—or, if it did, the.y did not act upon the thought—that tho difficulty might be surmounted by their voluntary resignation of their commissions, a step which lias been taken by others in a position similar to their own, not only without loss of dignity but with great credit to themselves. In all probability their voluntary reduction in rank was but temporary. A man who proved in war fit to hold the rank ho enjoyed in time of peace would assuredly not bo overlooked when" promotions were being made.

The position now is that the Defence Department has decided that these twenty young single officers must go into camp by the middle of this month as sergeants or bo treated as deserters, while the officers are understood to have fortified themselves with legal advice that they must bo given commissioned rank, and therefore intend to fight the Department. The latter may be assumed to be suro of its ground in the action on which it has decided, anfl there is thcreforo a possibility of legal proceedings between the two parties. Wo must hope that this will not be the case. The officers who are so tenacious of what they deem their leeal rights will consult their own reoutations by accepting the • inevitable and devoting themselves in camp to proving themselves 1 as non-coms worthv of being given commissions. Unless thev do this they will certainly ■ deserve the blunt comment of the chairman of tho Commission that they are "funnv chaps" who, after having had "all the " swank of being officers in pcaco time, " in time of war will not fight except "011 their own terms."