§ Mr. RAWLINSONasked the President of the Board of Trade what provision he intends to make at the end of their employment for the temporary clerks under seventeen years of age who have been taken on by his Department since the commencement of the War?
Mr. HARCOURTAs a general rule temporary boy clerks serving in the Board of Trade are obtained through the Civil Service Commissioners, under whose Regulations these clerks are not retained after they have reached eighteen years of age, unless they have passed the examination for assistant clerks (abstractor class). The Employment Department of the Board have recently, in order to meet a special pressure of work, made arrangements for the engagement by the divisional officers of Labour Exchanges of temporary boy and girl clerks at special rates of pay. The engagement in these cases is purely temporary, carrying with it no prospect of permanence, and a warning to this effect is given on engagement.