§ 20. Mr. Anthony Greenwoodasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to provide additional staff at the British Museum to deal with the arrears of cataloguing in the Department of Manuscripts.
Mr. AmoryI have authorised the provision, in the next financial year, of the additional staff which the Trustees of the Museum have requested for this purpose.
§ Mr. K. RobinsonIs the Chancellor aware that the British Museum contains one of the finest collections of Hebrew books in the world, but that no Hebrew catalogue has been published since 1894, and that there is not even a card index 780 of those books which have been acquired in the succeeding sixty years? Will his approval make it possible to do this cataloguing?
Mr. AmoryI was not aware of the particular case to which the hon. Member has referred, but I know there is a large backlog of cataloguing. It was with the object of helping to tackle that problem that I approved these additional places.