§ MR. SEAVERNS (Lambeth, Brixton)To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer whether a loss of £30 per annum will be occasioned to the State by the transfer of each second division clerk now performing first division duties in the Estate Duty Office to a vacancy in another office and his replacement by a new entrant from the first division examination at £100 per annum, as compared with the promotion of the experienced second division clerk to a first division clerkship in the Estate Duty Office without loss of salary and the introduction to the other office of a new entrant from the second division examination at £70 1231 per annum; and, if so, on what grounds is he prepared to incur this additional expenditure and at the same time sacrifice the experience of the transferred clerk.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) It is no doubt somewhat more expensive to recruit the Estate Duty Office from the first division examination than it would be to promote the existing second division clerks; but it is hoped that the new method of recruitment will increase the efficiency of the office, and I am not prepared to alter it.