§ 6. Captain CLIVEasked the Under-Secretary of State for India if he is aware that the prescribed tenure of administrative appointments by officers of the Military Accounts Department in India is three years, extendable to five; that at the conclusion of the current extensions and reappointments one officer will have held two such appointments for nearly ten years, two will have held one appointment for eight years each, one for six years, and one for five years; and whether, seeing that four out of five of the administrative appointments expire this year, he will, pending a settlement of the whole question, place these officers on the unemployed list, as contemplated by regulations, at the conclusion of their present extensions or reappointments?
§ The FINANCIAL SECRETARY to the TREASURY (Mr. Montagu)I have been asked by the Secretary of State to reply. The five officers in question have been retained in their appointments solely in the public interest. With regard to the last part of the question, a revised organisation of the superior appointments in the Military Accounts Department is about to be introduced, but the Secretary of State cannot undertake that none 743 of these officers will be further employed, as they will not have reached the prescribed age for superannuation.
§ 7. Captain CLIVEasked the Under-Secretary of State for India whether, seeing that he has admitted the slow rate of promotion of assistant military accountants in India, he has yet formulated a scheme for improving their pay and prospects; and whether, when such a scheme is put in force, its effect will be made retrospective?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe Secretary of State has recently sanctioned proposals of the Government of India for improving the pay and prospects of assistant military accountants. They will begin to take effect on 1st April, 1914, as the Secretary of State sees no sufficient reason for making them retrospective.