Note 279 — Chapter XV · The House of Commons, Under Pressure from the Civil Service Unions, Curtails the Executive’s Power to Promote Employees According to Merit

Compare also: Third Report from the Select Committee on Civil Services Expenditure, 1873; q. 3,703 to 3,705, Mr. T. H. Farrer, Permanent Secretary of the Board of Trade. “The salt of the service is the staff appointments…. Since I have been in the Board of Trade there have been almost forty higher staff appointments, and on not more than four could I put my finger and say they had been made from any other motive than the desire to get the best man. On some occasions the good appointments have been made in the teeth of strong political motives to the contrary.”