§ MR. T. LOUGH (Islington, W.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War, whether it is the fact that a surgeon-major general is now performing, in addition to his own duties, the duties also of the senior War Office Clerk at the medical division of the War Office while the latter is on leave of absence; whether an officer of major general's rank has ever, in any other branch of the War Office, performed the duties of a War Office Clerk; and, why the next senior clerk at the medical division is not, as is always the custom, nominated for the duties of the official in higher rank of his own service absent on leave?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe senior Civil Service clerk of the Army Medical Department was recently obliged, on medical grounds, to take short leave of absence, and during the few days he was absent, one of the Medical Staff exercised a general supervision over the duties performed by the subordinate clerks. The next senior clerk who ordinarily would have taken over the duty was, at the time, on the sick list, and about to retire from the service. It is impossible to say whether such conditions ever occurred before, but the mode of meeting the difficulty on this occasion was considered to best meet the requirements of the service under very exceptional conditions.