ARMY CHANGES IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 15

ARMY CHANGES IN BRITAIN

FASTER PROMOTION FOR OFFICERS

EARLIER RETIRING AGES

CBEITISH OTJTCIAt. WIEELESB.) (Received July 29, 12.10 p.m.) RUGBY, July 28. Far-reaching changes in the conditions of combatant Army officers, including a new time scale of promotion as the immediate result of which 2000 officers will receive promotion as from Monday next, were announced by the Secretary of State for War (Mr L. Hore-Belisha) in the House of Commons. The changes had been made, he indicated, to make an army career as secure and attractive as possible. Mr Hore-Belisha, in giving a general outline of the proposals, said that a new system of direct commissioning from the ranks would be introduced in place of the present system of passing candidates from this source through Woolwich and Sandhurst. This would be extended to any suitable candidate, whatever his means were, and the present limitation on the number of scholarships would be removed. It would thus be possible for any qualified candidate to obtain completely free education at Sandhurst or Woolwich and no charge whatever would fall upon his parents, either for his keep, scholastic material, uniform, or equipment. Another feature of the proposals concerned guaranteed continuity of service in the army subject to efficiency. The method of promotion by vacancy up to the rank of major would be abolished, and in future every subaltern would become a captain in eight years, and every captain would become a major in a further nine years, so that every officer entering at a normal age would be sure of approximately 10 years’ service in the rank of major if he had not previously been promoted. Tenure of Command Beyond the rank of major, promotion would be by selection to fill particular appointments. The system by which officers waiting for appointments went upon half pay would be abolished. Tenure of comImand and staff appointments generally would be reduced from four years to three. The ages of retirement for each rank would be lowered—Generals and lieutenant-gen-erals from 67 to 60; major-generals, 62 to 57; colonels 57 to 55; lieuten-ant-colonels, 55 to 50; majors 50 to 47. The effect of these proposals was to accelerate promotion and thereby give increased pay at lower ages while in the subaltern ranks. In the years before acceleration began to operate there would be a substantive increase in pay in the case of a second-lieutenant by a shilling daily and in the'case of a lieutenant of Is 2d. A further 100 scholarships of £2O yearly and tenable for three years would be distributed annually, and thus cumulatively, among subalterns on their first commission who needed this assistance. It could thus be claimed that an Army career, throughout its stages, would be possible for an officer without private means. Retired pay in future would be based on a combination of age and length of total service up to the rank of colonel inclusive, and thereafter it would be at fixed rates for each rank. This was in substitution for the present system of combination of rank and service, which, in each individual case, made retired pay dependent in a great degree upon hazard. These measures applied to all combatant corps of the Army, and would come into effect on August 1. Application to India The reforms would so be brought into operation that no officer on full pay would suffer compulsory retirement because of them, and the reduction in tenures of command and staff appointments would not occasion the displacement of any officer without a year’s warning. In general, the measures, including the new time scale of promotion and incremental stages, would apply as from the ruling date, to the officers of the British Army on the Indian establishment, and the consequential adjustments of Indian rates of pay issuable to officers on the Indian establishment would be decided shortly. One effect of the proposals was strikingly illustrated, Mr HoreBelisha said, by the fact that in one day more than one-quarter of the subalterns and captains in the combatant corps of the Army would be promoted. This would involve the largest Gazette in the history of the Army. In reply to a supplementary question, Mr Hore-Belisha said that the cost of the measures which he had announced was estimated at about £366,000 yearly, increasing to about £600,000 yearly, in about 20 to 25 years.