§ MR. YOXALLTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, in view of the recent compulsory retirements at the General Post Office and other Departments of assistant clerks (abstractor class) of over thirty years' service, on pensions of about 12s. per week, the Government will take steps to bring these men within the terms of a Treasury Minute which allows a gratuity, not exceeding one year's salary, to officers who have not earned a pension equal to one-half of their salary at the time of their compulsory retirement at sixty-five years of age.
(Answered by Mr. Victor Cavendish.) The Minute in question refers to officers appointed to established situations before retirement at sixty-five was made compulsory by Order in Council. It was part of the original conditions of the appointment of clerks of the abstractor class that they should be subject to compulsory retirement at that age, and the Minute, therefore, does not apply to their cases.