MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can state on what grounds the Treasury consented to extend the appointment of Sir F. Burton, the Director of the National Gallery, now aged 76, till next year; and whether, in this case, as well as in the numerous other cases in which the Treasury have sanctioned a departure from the Order in Council of 1890, which lays down the age of retirement as 65, they have duly considered the hardship that is inflicted on the younger men in the Departments involved, through the stoppage of their promotion consequent on the retention above them of officials beyond the limits of the working age laid down by the Order?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Sir J. T. HIBBERT,) OldhamThe object of the provision for compulsory retirement at 65 was to prevent inefficiency in the Public Service owing to age, and not to provide promotion for 1746 younger men. Sir F. Burton is retained because the period of five years for which he was re-appointed has not yet expired.