MR. HOWARD VTNCENT (Sheffield, Central)I beg to ask the First Lord of the Admiralty if writers in the Admiralty serving in the Volunteer Force who went out with their regiments on the Saturday before Easter had the day deducted from their annual leave of 12 days, while in the War Office, Stationery Office, Customs, &c, it was not so reckoned, in consideration of the public nature of its employment; and whether the same indulgence can be extended to the Admiralty?
§ *THE FIRST LORD or THE ADMIRALTY (Lord G. HAMILTON, Middlesex, Ealing)According to the regulations governing the employment of copyists in all the Public Departments, no leave beyond the 12 days allowed annually can be granted to these clerks without deduction of pay, except when the Department is wholly closed, as on public holidays. The War Office was closed on the Saturday before Easter, and consequently the writers in this Department, whether volunteers or not, obtained a holiday on that day in common with the rest of the staff. I am aware of no instance of a departure from the general rule I have described, and I have no power to modify it even in favour of an object of which I fully approve.