§ Captain D. HALLasked the Under-Secretary of State for War if he can state the number of civilian clerks out of Government offices who have been enlisted since the beginning of the year and are now employed as clerks in Army offices; and why these clerks are compulsorily enlisted and removed from work the details of which they are thoroughly conversant with, and placed to perform entirely new office work in the Army about which they know nothing?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONI am afraid there are no statistics available of the number of clerks enlisted from Government offices and now employed as military clerks. Government offices release those of their members only who are not indispensable, and the use of such men for the necessary clerical work of the Army is of advantage both as setting free men better adapted for other work and as relieving the strain on the clerical classes in the commercial community.