[TO THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—My attention has been drawn to a letter signed by Mr. P. E. Roberts in your issue of October 22nd, and it is only fair to him to say that my letter in the Times in May under- stated the case as to the Treasury salaries. The facts appear to be as amplified by me in the Edinburgh Review of July, 1921. At the beginning of the century the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury received £2,000 a year, which was raised after five years' service to £2,500. In 1913 there was one Secretary at £2,500; in 1914 there were two Secretaries at £2,000, for which there was a precedent; in 1917-18 there were three Permanent Secretaries at £2,000. At the present time their duties are performed by three Controllers at £3,000, and one superman, who controls them, at £3,500. These rises were given and paid in 1920 without the knowledge of Parliament, and while Parliament was still ignorant a bonus was asked for in addition, which is £500, for each of these lucky persons. The rises in salary were retrospective, to date from January, 1920, and apparently the bonuses were also. What is more, the bonus is practically permanent so far as one can judge from Hansard, because it depends on the return of the cost of living to the rate of 1914, and both bonus and increase are counted for pension. The Select Committee on the Estimates (White Paper 203, 1921) reported that " in view of the financial stringency of the present time this increase was most inopportune," but they say that it appears that the bonus to the higher class official being an executive act of Government may continue for a considerable time after each
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