20 NOVEMBER 1920, Page 3

departments should be reduced at once so that all the

' temporary buildings set up in the parks and open space, should ' be removed by June next. Lord Gainford instanced the cases of the superfluous Ministry of Shipping in St. James's Park and of the swollen Admiralty staff. Lord Stanmcrre, replying for the Government, said that it was impossible to remove the huts at present, as accommodation elsewhere would be costly. He promised that "pressure would be maintained to reduce the existing staffs." Lord Crawford gave similar vague assurances. Lord Midleton retorted that the Government committees for overhauling the departments seemed to have done nothing,and that the new departments were spending enormouply. The peers were obviously unimpressed by the familiar excuses repeated to them.