§ Lieut.-Colonel ENGLANDasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether candidates for admission to the Foreign Office and the Diplomatic Service, or either, are required to be in possession of private means as a condition of 501W appointment after having passed the competitive examination for such candidates; and whether he will take into consideration the possibility of arranging for boards of selection and examinations for such candidates to meet and be held more than once a year?
§ Mr. PONSONBYI have been asked to answer this question. The answer to the first part is in the negative; as regards the remainder of the question, the examination is held concurrently with the examination for the Indian Civil Service, Eastern Cadetships, the Colonial Service and the administrative class of the Home Civil Service, and the expense of holding an additional examination separately for the small number of vacancies normally available in the Foreign Office and Diplomatic Service would not be justified; it is not considered that any useful purpose would be served by holding a Board of Selection more than once a year, especially in view of the fact that candidates may appear at any of the annual meetings of the Board of Selection after they have reached their nineteenth birthday.