§ MR. GRETTON (Derbyshire, S.)I beg to ask the Financial Secretary to the War Office if his attention has been called to the fact that the last Ordnance Factory Estimates provide for 22 clerks on the establishment and not a single manager or mechanical assistant; if the managers who superintend the workmen and the assistant engineers who are responsible for the plant are now on the wages list and not on the establishment or included in the establishment charges; and if the Secretary of State will consider the desirability of not subordinating the technical to the clerical element?
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE WAR OFFICE (Mr. J. POWELL WILLIAMS,) Birmingham, S.The managers and assistant engineers are on the wages list. The clerical staff are subject to the rules which affect the Civil Service generally, and their duties are quite distinct from 1064 those of the factory technical staff, who, as a rule, are selected by the Director General from the foremen as having shown special aptitude for the duties required.