MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked if the hon. Member will explain how, if appointments of lecturers and others under the Scottish Insurance Commissioners are made upon non-party lines, it occurs that, out of the twenty names tabulated upon page 9 of Memorandum Cd. 6095, National Insurance Act, fourteen are Radicals, one Labour, three Socialists, and two Unionists; and will he say which of the gentlemen mentioned in that list have had direct experience and employment in insurance work?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe Scottish Commission have no information, nor have they made any inquiry, as to the political views of the members of their permanent and temporary staff; and, as I have already stated, appointments were made solely on the ground of capacity to undertake the work. Both the gentlemen appointed to permanent positions are Civil servants. Of the lecturers, five have had direct experience and employment in insurance work, two have had similar experience in trade union work, the remainder possess other qualifications, such as power of popular exposition and knowledge of the Gaelic tongue. The Commissioners are not prepared to accept the analysis of political opinion contained in the question as even approximately correct.
MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEIs it not rather strange that the gift of expounding the Insurance Act seems to be confined to Radicals only?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThat would be regrettable if true, but I do not think it is true, because some of the best expositors of the Act happen to be Unionists.
MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEIs it not a fact that there are only two Unionists, and one of them has already been found to be wrong several times?
§ Mr. PRINGLEIs it not a fact that the figures in the question accurately represent the proportion in which the ability to expound the Act is distributed amongst the various parties?