§ LORD BALCARRESI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether his attention has been directed to the claims for pension put forward by Mrs. Casabianca, late art mistress of the Royal College of Art; whether the services of this lady were dispensed with owing to the re-organisation of the Department, three months notice being given; and whether, in view of the fact that this lady, now a widow, has been forty-four years in Her Majesty's service, and that all her predecessors received pensions or gratuities, he will take the case into consideration.
§ MR. HANBURYI have examined this case very carefully myself more than once. I think hers a most deserving case, and I regret that Parliament has given no powers to the Treasury which would enable us to give a pension to Mrs. Casabianca. Up till a few years ago various persons in similar circumstances did receive pensions, but it was afterwards ascertained that the Treasury had exceeded its powers in granting them. The termination of her services was occasioned by the re-organisation of the Department, coupled with the fact that she had passed the limit of age at which retirement is usual in the Civil Service. Six (not three) months was the period of the notice.