§ MR. BLACKsaid, he rose to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty if there is any regulation preventing the men in the Preventive Service, Inland Revenue, from 865 marrying, and if men have been dismissed in Scotland for this offence.
§ MR. LAINGstated, in reply, that a regulation did exist, not to prevent men in the Preventive Service from marrying, but to restrict employment in that service to unmarried men. The reason was that Preventive Officers had to go over an extensive district, and were required to be absent from home at least four nights in the week, and experience had proved that married men were apt to neglect their duty in order to remain with their families. Gases had occurred in Scotland in which the engagements of married men had been terminated; but the words "dismissal for an offence" could not be applied to the termination of an engagement which was made upon the distinct understanding that such was one of the conditions of the service,