§ Mr. D. SOMERVILLEasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury whether, in the case of the dismissal of temporary civil servants, disabled men are retained to the last on the ground that they have the greatest claim on the public sympathy?
Mr. GRAHAMIn accordance with the recommendations of Lord Lytton's Committee, the general order of selection of temporary employés for discharge, subject to considerations of efficiency and of peculiar hardship in individual cases is, in the first place, non-service personnel, in the second ex-service personnel who have not served overseas and are not disabled, in the third ex-service personnel who have served overseas and are not disabled and, finally, disabled men. Length of temporary service would be taken into account only so far as might be consistent with the due observance of this general rule. It is not possible to define, in terms of precision, the extent to which the considerations referred to, which clearly vary greatly in strength, may modify the general order of discharge in particular cases.