Questions and supplementaries regarding the Behars and Captain C. P.
Davis occupy three columns of Monday's Hansard. Mr. Burgin could scarcely have expected the House to be satisfied with his bland reply that the head of a Department must, in choosing his staff, be allowed a very wide discretion, and that temporary civil servants hold office at pleasure. No one disputes his right to engage such persons as may be useful in war-time, or to dismiss them when he thinks fit. But Mr. Herbert Morrison expressed the common anxiety when he demanded to know whether these gentlemen were removed from their offices for some- thing that happened during their employment, or for something that happened before. If the latter, why were they employed? To the second query no answer was attempted. Some Ministers, whatever their shortcomings, manage to remain constantly on good terms with the House. Mr. Burgin has still to achieve this happy position. On this particular matter he has failed, up to the present, to allay the general uneasiness. * *
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