MR. LAWSONI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that, in his evidence before the Royal Commission on Civil Establishments, Sir E. Du Cane stated that there was no barrier in the Prisons Office beyond which clerks could not rise, and that there was nothing to prevent their being promoted to the office of secretary; if so, whether there was a clerk fit to be appointed, and why one was not appointed?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. MATTHEWS,) Birmingham, E.Sir Edmund Du Cane informs me that his evidence is correctly quoted. He did not, however, say that the appointment of secretary was limited to promotion from the rank of clerks. Without discussing the relative merits of eligible candidates, I may say that the office has been filled by the appointment of the person considered most competent for the situation.