§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he will explain why certain Second Division clerks in the Estate Duty Office, whom it is desired to promote to the first Division on the ground of special competency and merit, and of whom many are already performing First Division duties, are offered such promotion only on condition that they submit to a reduction of their salaries whereby they will receive, during at least seventeen years after promotion, less remuneration in the aggregate than they would receive as Second Division clerks.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) The conditions of promotion to the First Division in the case of the clerks referred to were settled prior to the issue of the Order in Council of 21st December, 1907, and were based on the sale of salary in force for Second Division clerks before that date. The grant of 379 a new scale to the Second Division by the said Order in Council cannot be held to constitute any reason for varying the conditions thus prescribed for promotion to the First Division. The same principle has been applied to similar cases in other departments of the public service.