Public Salaries (Payments Through Private Banks)

64.

Mr. A. W. ALEXANDER
asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether any servants of the Crown, apart from naval and military officers, are paid their salaries through private banks; and, if so, whether such arrangements will now be revised, in view of the recent experience in the case of McGrigor's bank?

Mr. BALDWIN
I am not aware of any such arrangements outside the fighting services.

Mr. ALEXANDER
If ordinary servants of the Crown can be paid their salaries by the Paymaster-General, why cannot officers be paid in the same way?

Mr. BALDWIN
That would require a longer answer than I could give in reply to a supplementary question.

Captain BENN
In view of the McGrigor case, does the right hon. Gentleman not think some revision of the practical enforcement of payment through Army agents is desirable?

Mr. BALDWIN
That question should be addressed to the War Office.