ARMY PROMOTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9758, 6 September 1917, Page 3

ARMY PROMOTIONS

ANOMALIES OF SYSTEM DEFENCE MINISTER'S REPLY UNSATISFACTORY. Commenting on the reply of the Minister; for Defence to tho representations of the returned soldiers' deputation last Monday, the general secretary of tho Returned Soldiers’ Association stated that tho reply of the Minister could not be regarded as satisfactory. Tho matter of promotions has been a very bitter and vexed one ever since the early days of the Expeditionary Force. The difficulty in the way of an adequate appreciation of the situation as it really is by the public of Now Zealand is that the only sections of, the community directly interested in the matters are those who are in a more advantageous position owing to the injustice pf the system. Comparatively few of the returned and discharged soldiers are likely to be directly interested in the. matter, and the consequence is that the men at the front, wno are the real sufferers by tho present system, have no means of making publicly known lb® invidious position in which they are placed. Soldiers returning are unammous in their condemnation of the state of affairs. The returned soldier feels that after three years of war it should not have been impossible for tho authorities to devise a just system of promotion such as would be an elementary step in the currying on of any properlyorganised business. The situation is not merely that those men who have deterred their enlistment to the last possible moment have the opportunity of arriving at the front as senior in rank to men who enlisted earlier, but that the standard required must of necessity tend to fall, as the tests of fitness are relaxed. Thus it, comes about that n recruit who decides to aim at a commission before leaving New Zealand spends no less than eleven months in training before ho sets out for tho front. The very pertinent question arises in the minds of the men who have gone as to why this kind of thing should bo permitted, and why those who. elected to bear the burden and heat, of the day should, be allowed to continue to do so, in preparation for being led by men whose qualifications have been gained through eleven months of camp life in New Zealand. No soldier ever suggests that every man who has served a long period in’ the trenches is fit for a commission, bnt no one with the slightest acquaintance with the real situation has ever dared to deny that there are hundreds of men now fighting in France, wfio, with a short: period of training in theoretical matters at the base, enjoying at the same time a wellearned relaxation, are absolutely competent to officer men at the_ front. Further than this, no one with any knowledge of the colonial would deny the preference Of tho colonial soldier for a commission among bis comrades, as against o commission in the Imperial Army. Hitherto, five commissions _a month.have been granted to colonials in the Imperial Forces, and these’ on General Qodley's own showing have given opportunities to men With well-earned claims to promotion. The reason why commissions were not available to such men in tho New Zealand Expeditionary Force is that the constant arrival of successive batches of new officers from New Zealand has tended to bar the way to promotion. A STRIKING CASE. As an instance of this, the case may be emoted of a sergeant in the New Zealand Engineers, who while on Gallipoli was the only man to be found with the skill and ability to undertake the construction of Watson’s* Tier. News has come to hand recently that after a great deal of difficulty he was able to gain a commission, ranking as junior to 22nd Reinforcement officers. When it is remembered that the 6th Reinforcements were the last to land on Gallipoli the feeling of men at the front towards, the system here ' indicated may . be well imagined. So disgusted, •in fact, ore many of the men with the present situation that not only do they decline to apply for promotion, but in many cases throw in their stripes as n.c.o.’s upon having newly-arrived reinforcements in-, stalled above them. - The general situation is thus unjust to an extent ot which the public at large have no adequate conception. SUGGESTED REFORMS. The remedy suggested by the N.Z.B.S.A. is simple and just, and no weighty objection has ever been raised against it. The proposal is simply that qualified men from the front should be brought back to completely staff the training camps in Now Zealand, andiurther that every transport should be officered by a transport staff f in the same manner as the staff of a hospital ship. The association has unuomuy urged that all members of reinforcements. with \ tho possible exception of commissioned ' officers, either from the New Zealand general staff or from Territorial units, should land at the base as privates only. If their training tor non-commissioned or commissioned rank is as effective as it is claimed to be they should be able to make good on level terms with the other men who have "one before them, instead of coming in ovei; the heads of these men. Every re. turned soldier knows that tliere ate numbers of returned men in New Zealand whc. while not sufficiently strong to undertake staff work, for whioh there is only limited , scope, are not. only thoroughly well qualified to work on the transport staff, but would benefit considerably in doing so. Tho statement of the Minister for Defence that it would be unfair to close altogether the road for non-commission-ed officers to work up tho ladder of promotion in New Zealand is one which is surely absolutely indefensible. The opening of tho door to men in this countryin such a manner automatically closes .the door at the other end, and tho only justification which could be , urged in practice for the present method is that it offers an extra inducement to enlisting to men who from whatever reason, have allowed three years of war to pass before their services were available for their country.