|
The Advisory Commission of the Military
William Order was created in 1815. The tasks and powers of the Advisory
Commission are as follows:
- Advising
the Minister of Defence on the nominations or requests for
appointment, promotion within the Order, or dismissal from the Order
- Providing
information to the Minister of Defence on issues concerning the
Military William Order
- Keeping
registers of the four classes of the Military William Order
- Keeping
notes on conferral of decorations to units of the Armed Forces.
The Minister of Defence
receives by hierarchical route the nomination or request for honour and
subsequently sends it to the Advisory Commission for their advice. The
advice of the Advisory Commission carries a great deal of weight. The
minister must present good arguments if he wants to deviate from this
advice. If the minister and the Commission cannot agree, then the cabinet
decides on the nomination. The conferral is ratified by Royal decree.
By virtue of his
position, the Chancellor of the Netherlands Order is the chairman of the
Advisory Commission, which has a total of ten members: seven permanent
members and three deputies. Traditionally and until recently, only holders
of the Military William Order were members of the Advisory Commission. This
also applied to the position of Chancellor. However, this tradition has
been broken with out of necessity. The last living Knights of the Military
William Order left the Advisory Commission on reaching the age of 75, in accordance with
the Rules of Procedure. All four units of the Armed Forces (Royal Navy,
Royal Army, Royal Air Force, Royal Military Police) are represented on the
Advisory Commission.
At the moment, the
conferral of bravery decorations, including the Military William Order, is
being reviewed in light of the current deployment of the Armed Forces. To
this end, the Commission for Bravery Decorations in the Ministry of Defence
has been re-established. The Advisory Commission is also studying
this issue.
|
|
|
|
