§ VISCOUNT WOLMERI beg to ask the Secretary for Scotland whether he has yet been able to examine the case of the staff of the Commissary Office, Edinburgh, as he undertook to do during the discussion on the Estimates last year; and, if so, whether he can state to the House the conclusion he has arrived at?
§ SIR G. TREVELYANIn accordance with the promise I gave the hon. Member, I have again considered the position of the staff of the Commissary Office in Edinburgh, and referred it for further consideration to the Treasury; but their Lordships have come to the conclusion that the question of placing these clerks upon the establishment of the Civil Service cannot be regarded by itself, as their case is practically the same as that of the numerous body of employés who constitute the staff of the offices of Government Solicitors and of 1450 other legal or quasi-legal Departments. I may add that the views of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury were fully communicated by me to the Head of the Commissary Office in December last; but that, on receipt of his reply, I did not feel that it would serve any useful purpose to again re-open the question with the Treasury.