§ Mr. A. WILLIAMSasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether he can arrange that in every examination held by the Civil Service Commissioners in which papers on the French and German languages are set similar papers, marked on the same scale, shall be set in the Italian, Russian, and Spanish languages?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe Civil Service Commissioners fully recognise the importance of encouraging the study of foreign languages, and in the case of appointments for which linguistic knowledge is specially desirable modern languages additional to French and German are already included in the scheme of examination. But as at present advised they are not prepared to recommend that Italian, Russian and 563W Spanish should be included in all schemes of examination in which French and Ger man now appear, and I understand that where modern languages may be offered as alternatives to French and German the number of candidates offering such other languages has hitherto been small.