§ MR. SNOWDEN (Blackburn)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury if members of the senior abstractor grade, who have served as writers or copyists for eighteen years or more before August, 1889, are allowed to count their whole service for pension, and that the abstractors of seventeen years service before that date, and appointed under precisely similar conditions, are allowed to count only eight and a half years; and, if so, whether he will see that the regulations governing abstractors' pensions are amended so as to adjust this difference of treatment of members of the same class of His Majesty's Civil Service.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (Mr. MCKENNA, Monmouthshire, N.)My predecessor answered a similar Question on February 24th, 1904.† I cannot do better than quote his words. The right hon. Gentleman said, "The rule which has been in force for the last fifteen years is that copyists or writers placed on the permanent establishment are allowed to count one-half of their previous service for pension. It is true that, under a special concession made many years ago, writers employed before August 19th, 1871, and afterwards, without interruption of service, transferred to the establishment, are allowed to reckon their whole service for pension; but I see no sufficient ground for extending this concession to other cases than these which it was intended to meet."
† See (4) Debates, cxxx., 837.