§ 66. Sir A. MARKHAMasked the Prime Minister if he will say how many official private secretaries he employs and the salaries paid to those gentlemen; are any of them of military age; whether he is aware that important communications made to him by Members of Parliament are at times not even acknowledged, though the said communications have been sent by him or his secretaries to other Departments of State; and will he direct his secretaries to acknowledge in the future the receipt of communications addressed to him by Members of Parliament?
§ The PRIME MINISTERI employ three private, secretaries, and their salaries amount in the aggregate to £2,360 per annum, which includes in the case of two of them, who are Civil servants, their salaries as officers of their respective Departments. Having regard to the quantity and quality of the work they are called on to perform, they are not, in my opinion, over remunerated. The answer to the second part of the question is two, one of whom has twice been rejected for military service on medical grounds. I am sorry to learn the facts stated in the last part of the question, and can assure my hon. Friend that the omission was quite accidental and due only to pressure of work.
§ Sir A. MARKHAMAre we to take it, then, that in the Department of the Prime Minister it is necessary to bring before the House the fact that three communications of great importance sent to him remained unanswered for a period of nine weeks?
§ The PRIME MINISTERNo, Sir; I think it is a most ungracious complaint. 498 Private secretaries, like everybody else, are very much overworked. If there was an omission in a particular case to answer a particular letter, it was due, as I have said, to pressure of work.
§ Sir A. MARKHAMIs the Prime Minister aware that there were three separate communications, which were forwarded to the Departments concerned, without the trouble being taken to acknowledge them?
§ Mr. OUTHWAITEWould the right hon. Gentleman inquire how many men of military age the hon. Baronet employs to make his enormous profits as a colliery owner?