§ Mr. SNOWDENasked the President of the Board of Education whether appointments to junior examinerships which had fallen vacant during his administration had been bestowed by him almost entirely on graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, to the exclusion of those officers of the Board who entered by means of open competition?
§ Mr. RUNCIMANOn the general question of the qualifications required for members of the higher staff of the Board of Education, I must refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 6th April to the hon. Member for Taunton. Within the limits set by the minutes referred to in the answer to that question I have selected, to the best of my ability the most suitable men at my disposal. These appointments have been made without reference to the question whether the individual candidates had, in fact, been educated at one or other of the two universities named, and had or had not entered by open competition. In fact, out of thirteen examiners appointed by me eleven had Oxford or Cambridge degrees, one had a Dublin degree, and one had no university degree. During the same period there have been three appointments from the second division to staff clerkships with supervisory and other important duties?