39. Mr. SHIRLEY BENNasked whether the Treasury agreed that an assistant secretary to the Welsh Insurance Commission should be appointed; whether the Welsh Insurance Commissioners decided that a knowledge of Welsh was not necessary for that officer; having so decided, whether they advertised in July last for an assistant secretary, the advertisement not specifying that a knowledge of Welsh was necessary; whether, on 13th September, the Commissioners nominated as assistant secretary an Englishman with experience of matters connected with the National Insurance Act; and whether the Treasury delayed the matter for a month, and then disapproved of the candidate selected by the Welsh Insurance Commissioners on the grounds that the person nominated could not speak Welsh?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe answer to each of the questions is in the affirmative. The Treasury regard a knowledge of the language of the Welsh people as an essential qualification for the post of assistant secretary of the Welsh Commission.
Mr. SHIRLEY BENNMay I ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as the Secretary of the Welsh Commissioners is a capable Welsh scholar competent to deal with the Welsh letters, as the Treasury state; whether it is not the duty of the 997 Welsh Insurance Commissioners to appoint as assistant secretary a man who has had considerable administrative training and has had a good practical experience in working the initial stages of the Insurance Act?
§ Mr. SPEAKERI should like to see those questions in writing.