§ MR. WHITMORE (Chelsea)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether the pensions recently awarded to attendants at the South Kensington Museum, who have been retired on account of age, have been calculated on the amount of wages less the deduction imposed and not on the wage-scale of their class, contrary to the terms made with men and contained in the letter of the Lords of the Treasury of 14th February, 1891, and contrary to the prac- 473 tice followed with regard to deductions under the Superannuation Act of 1834? SIR J. T. HIBBERT: The pensions of these men, like those of all Civil servants, are calculated on the rates of pay which they receive. This is in accordance with the terms offered by the Treasury in 1891 to the attendants who at that time had no claim to pension. I sec no analogy between abatements from pensionable salary made under the Act of 1834 as a contribution to a pension fund and the reduction of a non-pensionable scale of pay as a condition of the grant of pension upon the scale as so reduced.