§ MR. PICKERSGILL (Bethnal Green, S.W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether two Orders in Council relating to the Civil Service were issued on the 15th August last, only one of which was duly published in the London Gazette; whether the unpublished Order gave special powers to the Postmaster General to place a large number of clerks of the second class in the Savings Bank Department in the Second Division of the Service without their consent; whether the Postmaster General has since availed himself of these powers, notwithstanding the reported protests of the majority of the clerks in question; whether the Treasury was fully informed by the Postmaster General of the objections entertained by these officers to being reduced in rank; whether he will take steps to enable them to regain the rank of which they have been deprived after 789 many years' service; and whether he will give an assurance that all future Orders in Council relating to the Civil Service shall be published in the Gazette in accordance with the usual practice?
§ MR. JACKSONSome of the questions relate to matters not strictly within my Department, but I am informed that of the two Orders in Council of August 15, the one relating to the Civil Service generally only was published. In answer to the second question, the other Order in Council did authorise the Postmaster General, with the consent of the Treasury, to transfer certain clerks to the Second Division, but secured to each officer that he should not suffer in respect of increment, pension, holidays, or allowances. The Postmaster General has availed himself of the power given. I have no official knowledge as regards the protests to which the hon. Member alludes. I see no reason for further Treasury interference, and I do not think that the large body of gentlemen who form the great Second Division of the Civil Service, as now constituted, will agree with the hon. Member that their division ranks below the comparatively small and expiring class to which the question refers. I think it unnecessary to give an assurance under which all Orders in Council, however unimportant, would be published; but I see no reason why, speaking generally, all Orders of importance should not be published.