PROMOTION OF SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2636, 6 December 1915, Page 6

PROMOTION OF SOLDIERS

A COMPLAINT, AND A REPLY, ' (To the Editor.) Sir, —In looking through the recruiting handbook' recently issued by the Defence Department I notice a section in which the following statement occurs:— "It is necessary to be scrupulously fair to those who have previously enlisted and are on active service. ... It would obviously bo wrong to fill up the whole of the vacancies in the Expeditionary Force by men who had not had actual war experience, and so block the promotion of promising men with war oxperienee at the front." Now, I will give you a few facts to show you how the authorities are endeavouring to carry out this arrangement. A trooper who went away with the Main Body of the Expeditionary Forco was for oyer three months in the firing line at Gallipoli, and was then invalided home to Now Zealand. He is now nearly fit to return, and wished to have a chance to work for a commission, or at least to go with noncommissioned rank, as he had, in order to join the Main Body in the first instance, to give up his stripes, which he was entitled to wear as a member of the Territorial Force. The necessary recommendation was obtained, and an application form filled in. An answer was recoived to tlio effect that thero was no chance of his receiving a commission or anything else, as all who were able to return to tlio front must do so with the samo rank as they held wnen they left there. Now, is this not encouraging treatment for one who is—judging by those who arc taken—in every way qualified for tho position? It may, of courso, be said that tho man is not suitable, but this is hardly likely, since lie has had tho advantage oi a University education, and in private life, as an employer of labour, has been used to controlling men. ■ Surely in a case like this the least the authorities could do would bo to give the man a chance to prove whether t (he is fit or not. No exception would be taken to this if it were not for the, fact that the authorities are constantly filling positions in the Reinforcements with untried men, while a man who has risked his life for his country is told that there is no chance for him. Should this catch tho eye of tho Minister of Defence, I trust that he will use his influence to have this injustice remedied. —1 aw, etc., JUSTICE. STATEMENT BY THE HON. JAS. ALLEN. "The writer of the letter does not understand the position," said the Hon. J. Allen, when it was submitted to him. "These men who are sent back to the front after having been invalided are not members of the Reinforcements at all, and this man is still a member of the Main Body. They got chances of i promotion in the field which the man who joins the Reinforcements here can not get, and promotion in the field comes _ without examination, .whereas a man joining the Reinforcements here must go through a special training and pass an examination before ho gets his commission. Even after passing his examination ho has to take His chance as to whether a commission will be ojien to him. Men who leave hero with non-commissioned rank in the Reinforcements do not get their rank confirmed until they reach. Egypt. The man who-goes with the Reinforcements is in just as bad a position with regard to promotion as a man at the front. They all want non-commissioned rank now, and they can't all have it. There is no injustice abont our plan. We can't refuse to accept men for noncommissioned _ rank, otherwise we should kill the recruiting movement. If we decreed that everybody should go as !$■ private wo might not get men. We. cannot satisfy everybody, by giving everybody promotion, and L think the man at the front has his fair chance.".