§ SIR C. PEARSON (Edinburgh and St. Andrew's Universities)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been called to the complaints of the clerks in the Solicitor's Department, Inland Revenue Office, Edinburgh, as regards salaries and promotions; whether it is the fact that as regards salaries these clerks compare unfavourably with those iii corresponding positions in London and Dublin; whether the Treasury has had under consideration a Memorial on this subject addressed to the Board of Inland Revenue on 20th January last; and whether he can say when a decision will be arrived at, and a reply sent to the Memorialists?
§ *SIR J. T. HIBBERTWhen this matter came before the Treasury in 1890 and 1891 the then Board of Treasury held that a case had not been made out for the increased salaries suggested by the Board of Inland Revenue, and that the argument which it was sought to base on the analogy of the English and Irish Offices was not valid. I understand that a Memorial was sent to the Board of Inland Revenue by the clerks in January of the present year, asking the Board to make fresh representations on the subject to the Treasury. But up to the present time the Inland Revenue Board have not seen fit to do so.
§ *SIR C. PEARSONAre the facts referred to in the second paragraph of the question correct?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTI have no doubt it is so.