§ MR. C. E. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his attention has been drawn to an advertisement for a chief constable for the county of Bucks, and to the fact that 62 applications have been sent in, some of the applicants being gentlemen of considerable police experience, and that the list for final selection has been reduced 72 to five, not one of whom is reported to have had any police experience; and whether, in justice to those gentlemen who have given long years to service and training in the police profession, and for the advantage of the public service, he will consider the advisability of amending the rules for the government of the police, so as to make such previous training and experience a condition of his sanction to the appointment of chief constable?
§ SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEYThe facts to which the hon. Member refers have not been brought to my notice. When the recommendation of the Standing Joint Committee reaches me, it will of course be considered carefully in all its bearings; but no one, it appears to me, can be more interested in making the best selection for this important post than the public body with whom, subject to the approval of the Secretary of State, the appointment rests; and it would be unwise in my judgment to narrow the field from which they are able to select in the manner suggested in the question.