§ MR. W. H. JAMES (Gateshead)asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Whether the Office of Superintendent of the Greenwich Hospital Branch of the Accountant General's Department was lately abolished, the occupant of the Office receiving a gratuity of £1,500, 956 and a pension of £566 13s. 4d,; whether, soon after, the appointment was resuscitated, the title of "Director" being substituted for that of Superintendent; and, whether it is true, that a salary of £1,000 per annum is now attached to the Office, although, in 1879, Sir Robert Hamilton, in his Report on the Re-organization of the Admiralty, stated that the duties could be performed by a principal clerk, at a salary of £600 a-year?
§ THE FIRST LORD (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON) (Middlesex, Ealing)The Office of Superintendent of the Greenwich Hospital Branch of the Accountant General's Department was abolished in 1885, in accordance with the proposals of the Committee on Greenwich Hospital, and the pension and gratuity mentioned were awarded to the holder of the Office, who had served more than 40 years. The appointment has not been resuscitated; but, on the recommendation of the Committee, the Office of Director of Greenwich Hospital was created, with a direct responsibility for the whole of the business of Greenwich Hospital, which had hitherto been divided between two officers. A salary of £1,000 a-year is attached to the new Office, as recommended by the Committee. In the Report of the Committee on the re-organization of the Admiralty in 1878, of which Sir Robert Hamilton was a member, there is no recommendation of a change in the position or salary of the then existing Office of Superintendent of the Greenwich Hospital Branch. It may be added that under the now system the cost of management has been largely reduced.