§ CAPTAIN BAGOT (Westmoreland, Kendal)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, on the Comptroller and Auditor General calling attention to the payment of salaries to officers of Her Majesty's Diplomatic and Consular Services when those officers were beyond the limit of ago at which they should have been retired under the Order in Council of 900 15th August, 1890, he was informed that the provisions of the Order in Council do not, in Lord Rosebery's opinion, apply to members of the Diplomatic and Consular Services; and whether he can state the reasons which have induced the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to come to a conclusion on this point in contradiction with that of the Comptroller and Auditor General?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir E. GREY,) Northumberland, BerwickThe Diplomatic Service has always been regarded as distinct from the Civil Service, and in many points the Consular Service must be also regarded as distinct. The Royal Commission on Civil Establishments made a separate Report on the Diplomatic and Consular Services, and their recommendations require separate consideration. No question, therefore, arose of applying the Order in Council to those Services.