§ SIR G. KEKEWICH (Exeter)To ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether, seeing that many boy clerks will complete their terms of service during the next twelve months, and that during that period the examinations for Second Division clerkships are to be wholly suspended, and the examinations for assistant clerkships and assistants of Excise and Customs are being postponed, he will state how the Treasury propose to deal with boy clerks who will attain twenty years of age in the period during which those examinations are suspended or postponed.
(Answered by Mr. Hobhouse.) It is not anticipated that there will be any postponement of the examinations for assistant clerkships during the next twelve months, or that examinations for the Second Division will be wholly suspended during that period. The postponement of the competitions for the Second Division and for assistantships of Excise and Customs will not shut out-boy clerks who reach the age of twenty during the next twelve months for the general regulations allow reductions of age to be made for boy clerk service.