§ MR. CARLILEI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that all the second division clerks in the Estate Duty Office who have accepted promotion to the first division accompanied with a reduction of salary have been men located in the branch offices in Edinburgh and Dublin, where greater inducements to acceptance prevail than in the head office by reason, inter alia, of the larger proportion of superior posts likely to become available to the promoted men; whether the fact has been brought to his notice that, even in these cases, the promotion was only accepted under protest, and in view of the alternative being transfer to a London office and consequent separation from relatives and friends; and whether, seeing that a clerk on promotion will be required to perform superior duties, he will consider the advisability of granting an immediate benefit in salary rather than a benefit deferred for twenty years, and subject to a substantial loss in the meantime.
§ MR. HOBHOUSEI am informed that the Answer to the first part of this Question is in the affirmative, inasmuch as no offer of promotion accompanied by reduction of salary has been made to second division clerks in the head office. In each case in which in the branch offices the offer has been made it has been accepted, and I am not aware of any instance in which this has been done under protest. As regards the remainder 1054 of the Question I must refer the hon. Member to my previous replies.