§ MR. JOHN KELLY (Camberwell, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Admiralty whether three Lower Division vacancies in the Accountant General's Department of the Admiralty have recently been filled up by persons who have passed no examination, except in the case of one who was for some time a boy copyist; whether about a dozen Civil Service writers in this Department were recommended for promotion under the Treasury Minute of 21st December, 1886, to the Lower Division, and that of this number three only have been so promoted; and whether, in the event of the appointments to the above-named vacancies in the Accountant General's Department being only of a temporary character, it is intended that steps should at once be taken to fill up the vacancies from the writers in the Department so recommended, and who have for several years discharged the work?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY (Mr. FORWOOD,) Lancashire, S. W. OrmskirkThe Civil Service Commissioners having exhausted their list of qualified candidates for Second Division clerks, three vacancies in the Accountant General's Department of the Admiralty had to be temporarily filled by copyists. It is not intended to 298 promote any of the present copyists to the Second Division clerkships now vacant.