"CONFIDENTIAL."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1122, 9 May 1911, Page 4

"CONFIDENTIAL."

MILITARY OFFICERS. REPORTS ON EFFICIENCY. Under the new defence regulation* which have just been gazetted, a confidential report will be furnished to Ihe Commandant of the Forces annually on every officer on the establishment of the New inland Staff Corps and New Zealand Permanent Force. These report? will l>e strictly confidential and privileged, and are in no case to be made public. An officer will be recommended in his annual report either I'll) For accelerated promotion. (2) For promotion in Uie ordinary., course; or (3) For promotion lo lie delayed. Should the confidential reports of twff successive years recommend delay in promotion a special report will be rendered by tho Officer Commanding the District, statin" whether he thinks it desirable that the officer should retain his commission. In recommending an officer for accelerated promotion, tho officer submitting tho report will record clearly and concisely the special qualifications wlilc.ii make the officer more efficient than his comrades. Recommendations of this nature should be sparingly made, and should apply to cases only where the officer is exceptionally gifted, or where he has displayed special ability in the performance of his duties. These recommendations will carry greater weight when an officer has passed his examination for promotion and hns obtained a special certificate, although the latter is not an essential condition. The confidential annual report on each' unit of the Territorial Force and Senior Cadets rendered by the inspecting officer will contain a short confidential report on each officer of tho unit. This is the only annual confHlenli.il report required in tho cass of officers of tho Territorial Force. ' Officers in charge of area groups, adjutants, and all other officers in ' Corps who have members of tho Permanent Staff serving directly under them will submit to the Officer Commanding tho District in each year a confidential re? port on such members of the Permanent Staff. When an officer is adversely reported on in regard to his fitness for his present position or for promotion to a higher one, or in respect of any fault which af-> fects his character as an officer, tho particulars of the adverse report arc, when practicable, to bo read to him (and a copv handed to him) by the Officer Commanding the District or other officer to whom the report is rendered, who shnll at the same time communicate any point which may have como under his observa/ tion, and inform the. officer concerned that if he continues to bo so reported on he will be required lo resign his commission. If this course is not practicable, the above particulars are to he communicated to the officer concerned by letter. A noto will be mnde in tho report that these instructions Jiavo been duly attended to, or an explanation furnished wlien they have not been carried out.