TERRITORIAL OFFICERS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3133, 11 July 1917, Page 4

TERRITORIAL OFFICERS

ALLEGED UNFAIR TREATMENT. A request for more consideration for Territorial officers called upon to join the Expeditionary Force was made by Mr. V. H. Reed in the House of 'Representatives yesterday. Mr. Reed referred to the recent order calling upon all Territorial officers who were of the First Division to sit for examination preparatory to entering the Expeditionary Force. There were about 90 of these officers and there were only 30 positions open for them, the highest rank open to them being that of second lieutenant. Some of these officers had previously held the rank of captain. He would ask the Minister whether some better consideration could not he given to Territorial officers. One officer he knew who had volunteered on several occasions hnd now been accepted. Sir James Allen said he would be glad to have the question put with notice, because the reply to it would involve an official statement. The position with regard to Territorial officers was that it was considered that if a man who was in the First Division w,ould not go to the war ho was not fit to be a Territorial officer. With respect to the rank to be offered to officers going! abroad with the Force, this must necessarily be low rank, because men of high rank could not be sent to take positions'in a force which had been 2* years in the field. There had been constant conflict between the authorities here and at the front with regard to the appointment of officers, and the tendency had' been to appoint more men to commissions at the front, and to appoint less from the Territorial Force in Nciv Zealand.