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39. Status of Territorial Officers for whom no Vacancies are available for Commissioned Appointment to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. This question has been a subject of considerable interest, and has been variously commented upon since the middle of 1917, at which time the Department was faced with a real difficulty in disposing of a number of Territorial officers who, owing to the return of officers from the front for duty with Reinforcements on the outgoing voyage, the reduction in the strength of Reinforcements which then took place, and for various other causes, were found to be surplus to the requirements for officers for the Expeditionary Force. The question, which was fully ventilated before the Royal Commission on Defence Expenditure, is considered to be of such importance as to warrant the publication herein of extracts from the evidence of the General Officer Commanding and the comments of the Commission. " We quote in full the question we put to the General Officer Commanding on this matter, and his answer, which we consider fairly presents tho position :— " Question : It is reported that about the middle of 1917 some sixty to seventy officers, mainly Territorials, wero taken into camp for whom commissions in tho Expeditionary Force could not be found. If this statement is correct, please explain— (a) How this state of affairs arose. (.) Was employment found for these officers, and on what duty ; or (c) were they discharged or granted leave ? If the latter, was it with or without pay 1 (d) How much this error, if committed, cost ? (c) What is the present position of tho matter ? " Answer : The question is merely one of supply and demand. Wo have available a number of Territorial officers who lack experience in tho present war, for whom vacancies cannot be found in Reinforcement drafts. Tho number of officers involved is really forty-two, which represents tho balance of two classes drawn from sixty-throe officers who wero mobilized in July and August, 1917, for a special course of training. As a result of this course, twenty candidates wero selected from among those who gained the highest marks, tho remainder being given leave, as they objected to the conditions under which they proceeded to camp —viz., that if found unsuitable, or if no vacancies existed for their appointment to tho Expeditionary Force with commissioned rank, they should bo reverted temporarily for service in tho Expeditionary Force as N.C.O.s. " The question is a matter of policy and is now under consideration. The officers were in the first place granted leave without pay, but as a solution of the problem could not, bo found and the officers concerned, were without moans, pay was issued from time to time up to 9th March, 1918. No employment was found for these officers, as it was impossible to forsee when this question would be sottlod, and leave was only granted for short periods. They were not sent back to camp, for tho reason that their presence there created discontent, which was apt to depreciate the value of their own and their comrades' training. Their pay whilst on leave amounted to £2,966. " It is not admitted that an error was committed, as the situation was forced on by tho provisions of tho Military Sorvice Act, which is no respecter of persons in its insistence that every fit man must proceed abroad when his turn comes. The Military Sorvice Act had the effect of throwing a surplus of inexperienced officers on our hands, and tho legal difficulties involved in reconciling tho provisions of the Military Sorvice Aot with tho necessity for respecting the King's Commission, if possible, caused unavoidable delay regarding these officers' disposal. " This problem exists in other parts of the Empire, as applications are being received asking for employment here, the applicants stating they aro surplus in their own dominions. " One cannot but sympathize with the portion of these officers who volunteered for active service earlier in the war but who were retained on duty in Now Zealand, and it is hard on them to be now asked to accept less than commissioned rank. We understand others had not previously offered their services, and with them we have no sympathy. " But we feel that all those gentlemen will, on reflection, sink their personal feelings, as so many others in New Zealand have done, and cheerfully fight in whatever sphere it may please their country to allot them. Their position is invidious now, seeing that they were glad to wear uniform in peacetime ; and we fear that in the years to come no explanation will serve if they refuse to go, however well-founded their contention may at present seem. " It may assist them if they admit what is due to gallant fellows who joined the ranks years ago, not as sergeants but as privates, and who fought and suffered all sorts of dangers and privations to attain to commissioned rank, and realize what the feelings of these fellows would be to see brand-new officers coming in over their heads four years after tho war had begun I " Since the publication of the Commission's report, judgment has been given in the case Morris v. Attorney-General, proceedings which were instituted on behalf of the officers concerned to test the legality of the Department's attitude. This decision was given on the Bth August, 1918, and the Court, consisting of three Judges, unanimously held that Territorial officers had, as such, no special rights or privileges in the Expeditionary Force, that they were not entitled to retain the status of officers in that Force whether they had entered it as voluntary or as compulsory recruits, and that they were bound to serve as privates or non-commissioned officers unless the Governor-General, in the exercise of his discretion, chose to gazette them as officers of the Expeditionary Force. This decision accorded with the advice received from the Solicitor-General upon which the Defence Department had acted. It is a matter for regret that the Department was unable to find places for all Territorial officers in the Expeditionary Force with commissioned rank. It is feared that the attitude of many Territorial officers concerned has been miscontrucd by the, public. These officers were referred to in certain sections of the Press as " shirkers," and it is the earnest desire of the Department that any such impression should be, dispelled. It should be remembered that the Department has always considered it undesirable that a Territorial officer should serve in the ranks of the Expeditionary Force if he is equal to tho standard of efficiency required of an officer in this war, or if he can reasonably be raised to such a standard of efficiency. For this reason the Department deliberately discouraged the enlistment of Territorial officers in the ranks of the Expeditionary Force, and applications to proceed abroad, which were received from many Territorial officers concerned, were held over in the hope that commissioned vacancies would be later available. It follows that their failure to go forward earlier was not necessarily a fault of their own. It is emphasized that the question was principally one of supply and demand, and that, had vacancies been available, a large number of the Territorial officers deferred would have been appointed direct to the Expeditionary Force in consequence of their undoubted qualifications,