§ MR. A. C. MORTONI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether it is the fact that the Treasury has quite recently sanctioned the appointment of a clerk, who is not a Second Division clerk, to a staff post in the Science and Art Department, a post which had been specially reserved for the Second Division clerks of that Department; and whether the Rule that a staff post may be filled either from within or without an office, referred to in a letter dated 27th July last from the Treasury to the Department of Science and Art, is to be regarded as applying to posts which have been specially set apart for clerks of the Second Division?
§ SIR J. T. HIBBERTNo staff post can be specially reserved to any class irrespective of the question whether there is any member of the class in the De- 1597 partment who is qualified for appointment to the post. In the present case the Science and Art Department represented to the Treasury that there was no Second Division clerk whom they could recommend for the appointment in accordance with the conditions laid down, and in these circumstances the Treasury could not, in the interests of the Public Service, refuse to sanction an exception to the usual rule.