§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether Mr. Barnes, of the Colonial Audit Branch in London, received instructions to prepare for transfer to Cyprus, and, if so, whether such instructions have been cancelled, and why; whether Mr. Grannum, local auditor in Cyprus, with about £500 per annum after ten years service, although he never passed a Civil Service examination for his position, received similar instructions to prepare for transfer to London; whether such instructions have been cancelled, and, if so, why; and, seeing that under similar circumstances Mr. Bathurst was transferred from Gibraltar to London and promoted to be chief examiner at his Colonial rate of £486 per annum, will he state what position and salary did the Comptroller and Auditor-General contemplate giving Mr. Grannum before his transfer was cancelled.
(Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The Comptroller and Auditor-General is neces- 384 sarily the best judge as to the local disposition of the several officers of his Department which is most to the advantage of the public service, and I am not prepared to inquire into his reasons for transferring or not transferring particular officers or into the hypothetical consequences of an unrealised contingency.