COLONEL DAYIES'S APPOINTMENT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 906, 27 August 1910, Page 5

COLONEL DAYIES'S APPOINTMENT.

.■-.'■ /^FOR-FOUR/YiEARs!. ' - : . In' answer to a question by Mt. Heaton Rhodes, in the House of Representatives on ; Wednesday last, the Minister for Defence (Sir Joseph Ward) stated .that Colonel Davies's appointment to one-of the infantry> brigades at Aldershot was a permanent one. In this it, would appear;that. Sir Joseph Ward has. been misinformed. As a matter of fact, no brigade command is permanent, or ever has been so. Article .70 of the Royal Warrant governing ''appointments, pay, etc., stipulates that the term of all staff appointments shall be four years, and definite information has been received in New Zealand that Colonel Davies's appointment is for four years. As Jo■ the pay connected with, the appointment, it is, if in quarters, £880 per annum; if not in quarters—such quarters being: a very good house—it is. £1000 a year. In addition, three Government horses art allowed,* and. two soldiers as servants. The idea that Colonel Davies has gbno "permanently," and that, his services in the. future cannot be in connection-with tho Dominion's . defences, may bo dismissed from the_ hvinds of New Zealanders. Indeed, it is known that important officers_ in Britain aro well aware that there is not room enough here for both ■a. Commandant and an Inspector-General. It is considered by .them that the War Office, by taking* the last-named officer, while supplying us with tho former, aro effecting an'exchange.'that will give us first of all an organised military force, and in the course' of about four years' time a man of our'own as Commandant.