§ Sir JOHN BETHELLasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether a junior assistant clerk in the Customs and Excise Statistical Office has recently been promoted to a junior clerkship over the whole of the minor staff officers and the senior assistant clerks; whether four junior assistant clerks have been offered promotion to second division clerkships; will he state what is the maximum salary of the junior clerkships and of the second division clerkships to which these junior assistant clerks will be promoted; what is the maximum salary of the minor staff officers in the Statistical Office and how many have reached that maximum; and, in view of the fact that the junior assistant clerks 1676W are now being promoted to both junior clerkships in the Statistical Office and to second division clerkships in other branches of the Customs and Excise Department, will he state if any steps are being taken to provide prospects of promotion for the minor staff officers and the senior assistant clerks in accordance with the promises held out in Treasury Letter 14,756/1899 that they should have prospects of promotion not inferior to those of similar officers in other Departments?
§ Mr. MASTERMANThe answer to the first point is in the affirmative, to the second in the negative; to the third the maximum salary of a junior clerk and a second division clerk is £300; to the fourth £220 and 6; in reference to the final part of his question I beg to refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my predecessor to the hon. Member for the Tottenham Division of Middlesex on the 30th October last.