HC Deb 03 May 1870 vol 201 c110
MR. BARNETT

said, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, To whom application ought to be made for the payment of Diplomatic Pensions now due, in consequence of the abolition of agencies in the Foreign Office, where it appears no information can be obtained on the subject in answer to inquiries that have been made?

MR. OTWAY

The agencies in the Foreign Office will not be abolished till the 30th of November. After that time, as, indeed, at present, pensioners may obtain their pensions at the Pay Office by means of a power of attorney given to a banker, or any other person they choose, as hitherto; some, at least, of them have obtained them from the same source by means of a power of attorney given to their agents in the Foreign Office. The pensions of Foreign Ministers have not been heretofore, and will not be hereafter, issued from the Foreign Office, but paid at the Paymaster General's Office to the holders of powers of attorney.

MR. BARNETT

Will it be regular, for the present, to apply to the agents who have hitherto paid these pensions?

MR. OTWAY

Up to the abolition of the agency system on the 30th November next the regulations hitherto made are in force.