§ COLONEL O'BEIRNEasked the Secretary of State for War, Why the Army Pay Department, now the second largest in the Army, is the only department that has no officer to represent it at the War Office?
§ MR. CHILDERSThe Question asked by my hon. and gallant Friend does not really disclose the real point at issue. It is not so much a question of Departments being represented at the War Office as of the sufficiency or insufficiency of the control exercised over them by the present staff; and the suggestion which really underlies my hon. and gallant Friend's Question is whether the discipline of the Pay Department should not be removed from the Accountant General to the Adjutant General, and an additional officer appointed for this purpose to the latter office. I am not prepared at this moment to entertain such a proposal; but several questions as to the business of the Accountant General's office must be discussed this year, and this will probably be one of them.