§ MR. A. M. SULLIVANasked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether it is intended to regulate the superannuation of the Customs officials, in accordance with the system now carried out at the Admiralty, as to the compulsory retirement of men 65' years of age, with 40 years service who have obtained the maximum salary of their position?
§ LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISHThere is no general rule providing for compulsory retirement from the Customs Service at any given age, and no general proposition has been made of the nature suggested by my hon. and learned Friend. But certain clerks who, after the late re-organization, remain redundant until vacancies occur for them in the superior part of the Establishment, have been permitted, in addition to this improved prospect, to rise in the meantime to salaries in excess of the maximum salary of the classes in which they stood previously to the re-organization, subject to the condition (inter alia),that on completing the 60th year of their age they should retire with pension unless the Board of Customs should recommend their continuance for special reasons and the Treasury give their consent. I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me for repeating what I stated in reply to a Question a short time ago— that it is most prejudicial to the efficiency and discipline of this great Service, and renders changes in it next to impossible, that the attention of this House should, without the gravest reasons, be invited so frequently as has been the case in recent years to matters of executive detail in connection with it.