Mr. KENNEDY JONESasked the Secretary to the Treasury whether the 422W post of deputy-controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office has in the past been filled by the promotion of officials who have risen from the rank and file of the regularly recruited established Civil servants employed in that Department; and why the usual practice has been departed from recently by the appointment to the deputy-controllership of a gentleman who had only been employed in the Department in a temporary capacity for a period of less than six weeks?
§ Mr. BALDWINThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. The usual practice has been departed from recently because, although there are in the Department several able and experienced officers, none of them possesses, the combination of qualities which would fit any of them for the appointment. It was, therefore, reluctantly decided to go outside the Department and to appoint a gentleman under Clause 7 of the Order in Council of the 10th January, 1910. The gentleman selected had, prior to the War, a distinguished career at Cambridge. He joined the Army early in 1915 as a subaltern. By virtue of his administrative ability he rose to be Lieutenant-Colonel and Deputy-Director of the Army Printing and Stationery Services (Overseas).