§ MR. PICTON (Leicester)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for War whether his attention has been called to the alleged grievance of Robert Colclough, for 28 years employed in the Ordnance Store Department, Woolwich, and a foreman since 1878, who was reduced in 1888 in consequence of a mistake made when he was absent through illness; whether he is aware that this man received sick pay at the rate of 30s. per week, but was afterwards superannuated on the scale due to a labourer on 19s. per week, and that his reduction from foreman to labourer took place 40 days after his pay had ceased; and whether, looking to the long service of this man terminating in a breakdown of his health, the case can be re-considered?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY, WAR DEPARTMENT (Mr. BRODRICK, Surrey, Guildford)In reply to this question, I have to say that Robert Colclough, of the Ordnance Store Department, Woolwich, was not reduced in grade for any mistake made during his absence from illness, but on account of long proved inefficiency and carelessness as a foreman, for which he had been reported before his illness. Under all the circumstances, it was an act of mercy to give this man the benefit of the doubt, and not to dismiss him altogether, as his conduct would have justified.