§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether the Secretary of State will take into his consideration the claims of officers wounded in action, and rendered unfit for military service, but not incapacitated from performing clerical duties, for appointment to the clerical establishment (Class I.) of the War Department, instead of placing them on retired pay; and whether he will reserve some of these vacancies for retired officers of the Army Pay Corps who possess the requisite qualifications for performing the duties of principal clerks?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe higher division clerks employed in the War Office are admitted between the ages of 22 and 24 years, after a severe competitive examination toy the Civil Service Commissioners, and their service cannot be described as merely clerical. It is highly improbable that officers who have left the Army owing to wounds, or for other reasons, who would presumably be wholly without experience of the duties performed by these gentlemen, would be fit to discharge those duties. A general change of this character would, in the Secretary of State's opinion, be detrimental to the efficiency of the Department, but he has every desire to afford employment in the War Office to retired officers in any capacity for which they are fitted.