§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDE (Wexford, N.)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury if he will state how many out of the 600 writers promoted to the Abstractor Class when over the age of fifty years were gazetted to the War Office, and how many of these clerks actually forfeited £100 gratuity on such promotion; how many of the established abstractor clerks in the War Office have been called upon to accept retirement at the age of sixty years, while efficient and with less than forty years of service; 496 and whether such compulsory retirement at sixty benefited the Imperial Exchequer at the expense of these established Civil Service clerks.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Arnold Forster.) Three abstractors when over the age of fifty were posted to the War Office, all of whom would have been eligible for the gratuity of £100, in lieu; of which they became eligible for pension. One of them was called upon to retire. The Imperial Exchequer did not benefit pecuniarily thereby except for a few years.