PROMOTION BY MERIT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 163, 30 March 1918, Page 6

PROMOTION BY MERIT

6 .SiR DOUGLAS HAIG'S OFFICERS. Lord Derby, .Minister of War, speak--.ing-in London some weeks ago,'replied•to critics wl\o had suggested that,,,the. best officers Mid not always coine to the top in the Army. He said that he and Sir Douglas Haig had long been working to secure that promotion should be by merit alone, bir Doughiß wrote to him: It has been my increasing effort to bring- merit andbrains to the front from- wherever they bo found." From the Territorials and the New Armies 90t6 men had been specially appointed to administrative end general staff posts. Lord Derby quoted tho cases of Sir Auckland Gcddes-and Sir Erin Geddes. Sir Douglas Haiti's own new. Chief of Staff, who left the Anny as a major, was a brilliant man of business in London, before rejoining; Lord Craven, now-a lieutenant-general- commanding ■a corps, left the Army as a colonel; another notable ■ instance of a .man coming forward was Freyburg.- Then there was a .schoolmaster named-Brad-ford,' little more than a schoolboy- when he went out, who was killed as-a.-briga-dier. Then there was young Asquith, a lawyer, now going on well after his bad -wound." ■ ~ Sir Douglas Haig had also, told him of- the case of a second conk of a colleco of Cambridge University who had become a moat efficient general staff officer. There was a lawyer who commanded a Regular battalion of the Buffs during the Somme Battle, ami an ox-sergeant-mnior of,.oavn.lrv who had gone to the colonies before the war and who now commanded a British infantry brignde. A man who was mess ?en?eant a Mnns was now colonel of an infantry battalion It seems to me," adrlpd Lord Dwbv. that, thora iwes tlinnwlves eo to prove that there is' no rinK and that merit does come o the top.'