MILITARY ANOMALY

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 155, 26 March 1919, Page 8

MILITARY ANOMALY

COMMISSIONED OFFICER OR N.C.0.?

The Royal Now Zealand Artillery has a non-commissioned officer who wears the ribbons of the Distinguished Service Order and the Military Cross, decorations that are granted only to commissioned officers. This anomaly arises froni the rule- requiring an officer struck off the roll of the Expeditionary Force to revert to the rank he held in the Pormanent Force or the Territorial Force before he went on active service.

"In the Field Artillery which left New Zealand with the Main Body," says the Christchurch "Sun," "was a second-lieu-tenant, Thomas Farr, who had been a non-commissioned officer in the Perman- . ent Artillery stationed at Palmorston t North. Recently, after over four years of good service, that officer returned as Major Thomas Farr. D.5.0..M.C. But the Defence Department of New Zealand has a regulation which provides . that ..n officer struck off the strength of the Expeditionary Force must revert to the rank he held in the Permanent Force or the Territorials before ho joined the Expeditionary Force. And so. in a notice in the latest 'New Zealand Gazette,' the long-service and good-conduct medal .':as been awarded to him. the ex-major is named as 'No. 936. Batlerv SergenutMajor Thomas Farr, D.5.0., M.C " Anomalies of this kind are considered by the Defenco authorities to be unavoidable under present conditions. The Permanent Force and the Territorial Force have an establishment that cannot be increased, and it is impossible to I find places within that establishment at their Expeditionary Force rank for all the officers who have won promotion abroad. • When they leave the, Expeditionary Force, therefore, officers revert for the purpose of the peace establishment to their original rank. They remain at their Expeditionary Force rank on a special roll, however, and the Defence Department proposes to take the whole question in hand when the demobilisation of the Expeditionary Force has been completed. The nroblem that will have to be faced in dealing with the Expeditionary Force officers'in the future is not peculiar to this country. Britain and Australia have the same difficulties to unravel. The number of officers of active service experience is far in excess of normal peace renuirements. Even if every officer without service exnerience were removed f rom the active list, there would not be room in t"» establishment- of tho Stiff Corns and the Permanent Force for all the returned members of, these forces at their Expeditionary Force rank.