§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that Mr. T. H. Evans, National Library of Ireland, who was transferred from the Royal Dublin Society and appointed a permanent civil servant in 1878, having received a Civil Service certificate to that effect, was compelled in 1890 to submit to a deduction of 5 per cent. from his pay in order to entitle him to a pension; and that in April, 1904, the Treasury sent a letter to the Department of Agriculture (Ireland) to inform Mr. Evans that he would not for the future have to submit to this deduction; and, if so, whether the Treasury will take steps, under the circumstances, to refund the money deducted from Mr. Evans's pay through some error, having regard to the fact that other attendants appointed on exactly the same conditions were pensioned without deductions from their pay.
§ MR. VICTOR CAVENDISHThe deduction made from Mr. Evans's salary down to April, 1904, was properly made and there is no ground for refunding it. From the 1s April, he was placed on a new scale of salary from which no deduction was required.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLOn what ground was the deduction made? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that other men in exactly the same position as Mr. Evans have had the money refunded.
§ MR. VICTOR CAVENDISHI under- stand that all the men are in the same position.