§ Major-General Sir NEWTON MOOREasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he is aware that the Civil Service Commission have made regulations respecting recruitment for the Civil Service where under many ex-boy clerks are now unable to compete for posts for which, except for the War, they would have been eligible and in many cases now actually filling, and that these regulations will exclude ex-soldiers who have not been to a university or to a school of a high type until the age of eighteen; what is the reason for the academic limitation, which did not exist before the War, which excludes the sons of poorer men; and what 1101W steps he proposes to take to protect the interests of these men whose careers are apparently endangered?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe competitive examinations by which the higher grades of the Civil Service were normally recruited have been replaced temporarily by a system of selection as it would not have been practicable to expect men whose education had been interrupted by active service to undergo the usual examination. In the circumstances it was necessary to prescribe some stated educational qualifications to keep the work of the selection boards within reasonable dimensions. My attention has been drawn to the fact that this regulation may adversely affect the chances of existing Civil servants to obtain appointments in the higher grades, and I am considering how this difficulty can best be met.