§ MR. MACDONALDI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, with reference to the intention of the Government to fill by open competitive examination (if at all) the impending vacancy in the Higher Division of the Colonial Office, whether the Secretary of State has given full consideration to paragraphs 8, 47, 48, and 50 of the Report of the Royal Commissioners, and to paragraphs 17, 36, and 37 of the Treasury Minute of 10th August, 1889, which distinctly recognise the eligibility of Second Division clerks for such promotion?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. S. BUXTON, Tower Hamlets Poplar)The Secretary of State has fully considered paragraphs 8, 47, 48, 50, also paragraphs 44 and 46 of the Second Report of the Royal Commission, as well as paragraphs 9, 10, 11, 12, 54, 56, and 60 of the same Report referred to in the answer to a previous question on the 17th ultimo. He has also considered paragraphs 17, 36, and 37 of the Treasury Minute of the 10th of August, 1889. These paragraphs must be considered as a whole. The Second Division and the Junior Grade of the Highest Division are recruited by open competition on very widely different lines of examination. It is true that the principle has been laid down that the door of promotion should be open throughout the Service, but this is only in cases of exceptional fitness and is not confined to Second Division clerks. It is clear from paragraphs 44, 46, and 53 of the Report that the Royal Commissioners were of opinion that the Second Division should look mainly for 475 promotion to the higher stages of the improved scale of pay of their Division and to the special prizes mentioned in paragraph 46. But in dealing with the Highest Division in paragraph 53 they dissuade as a general rule the promotion to it of Second Division clerks, although they say there may be exceptions as to which they desire to leave a free choice to the Heads of Departments. The matter is, therefore, left to the discretion of Heads of Departments, who must be allowed to judge as to the requirements of their respective offices. Amongst the Second Division clerks now serving in the Colonial Office, although satisfactorily performing the duties of their Division, there is no exceptional case which the Secretary of State could recommend for promotion to the Junior Grade of the Highest Division as possessing the qualifications which are obtained by open competition. On the other hand, the 12 Second Division clerks serving in the Colonial Office are favourably placed in there being in that Office an exceptionally large proportion of special posts—six in all—of the kind referred to in paragraph 46 of the Report, commencing at salaries of £250, or £300, and rising by annual increments of £15 to £400, £450, and £500 per annum, to which the best Second Division clerks may look to be promoted if found qualified. Two were so promoted last year, and the remaining posts will be dealt with in the same way if, as vacancies approach, the circumstances of the office should continue to justify their retention. The Junior Grade of the Highest Division is recruited by open competition of the 'same general character and severity as in the final schools of the Universities, and the highest places have invariably been obtained by young men who have obtained high classes at the University or by young men of corresponding calibre. It was with the sole object of attracting young men of that standard of education that corresponding scales of salary were adopted in certain Departments at the first introduction of open completion, and that the present scale is recommended by the Royal Commissioners. The Colonial Office is one of the Departments specially mentioned in paragraph 12 of the Report in which it is desirable to maintain a larger proportion than usual of young men so recruited.