SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Transvaal Civil Service Bill has been under the review of this Government, and whether it will be laid upon the Table; if this Government is satisfied that the best interests of retrenched British Civil servants, for which it has an acknowledged responsibility, are adequately protected; and whether the Bill provides that as British civil servants are retrenched the vacancies may be filled up by ex-republican officials under fifty years of age.
§ COLONEL SEELYThe Bill has not yet been received, and until it has been received and considered, I cannot make any statement with regard to it.