§ Mr. CHARLES DUNCANasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a circular was issued by the Board of Customs and Excise in November, 1910, inviting applications from senior assistants of Customs to serve as second officers for two years with an allowance of £10 per annum in each case in addition to salary; whether, seeing that the seven officers were actually in receipt of the £10 allowance from the date of their appointment to December, 1911, he will state why, in calculating the amount of back pay due to these officers under paragraph 171 of the Amalgamation Committee's Report, the Board of Customs and Excise reckoned 1556 the allowance already paid as ordinary salary and awarded a correspondingly less amount of back pay, thus abrogating in December, 1911, a stipulation definitely contracted for in November, 1910; and whether he will take steps to return to these officers the money deducted from their back pay, in view of the fact that they sacrificed their right of promotion for two years and were in consequence up to February, 1912, in receipt of a lower scale of leave and overtime pay than their juniors in the service, who had in the meantime been promoted?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe special duties which these officers performed as second officers at certain ports, and for which an allowance of £10 was granted in addition to their old scale of salary, are included in the general duties of the new grade of officer of Customs and Excise. The superior scale of salary applicable to the latter grade was—as a special indulgence—antedated to 1st April, 1909. As a necessary corollary, the £10 allowances were simultaneously abolished, but, each of the seven officers in question entered the new scale at a salary higher than his old salary and allowance combined.