§ SIR C. HILL (Shrewsbury)To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Civil Service Commissioners have decided to omit geography from all Diplomatic and Foreign Office Entrance Examinations; and, if so, what reasons have been given for such a course, and whether it has met with his approval.
(Answered by Secretary Sir Edward Grey.) The new regulations were adopted in order to attract men of general education, who might preferably have taken honours at the university in classics, history, or mathematics; and, although a knowledge of geography is no doubt very useful, it is a subject with which men of general education are generally acquainted, and which is easily acquired after entry into the service.