On Wednesday, the Government introduced a Bill concerned with the
pension question, and on Thursday withdrew it. The measure, which Mr. Goschen declares will be pressed to a settlement next year, deals with superannuation in the Civil Service, and is founded on the recommendations of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject at the beginning of the present Parliament. The provisions of the Bill put an end to the system of allowing persons who have acquired professional qualifications before they enter the public service to add a certain number of years to their record of actual employment when claiming their pensions, prohibits the grant of all special allowances to persons whose offices are abolished, forbids increased pensions for special ser- vices, and compels every Civil Servant who has reached the age of sixty-five to retire unless the Treasury and his own Depart- ment permit his continuance, in which case retirement does not become compulsory till sixty-nine. Since the Royal Com- mission, after hearing a great mass of evidence, and carefully considering the whole matter, adopted these recommendations, we should be very loth to challenge their fairness. It must be noticed, however, that Sir Thomas Farrar—whose voice, by- the-way, has a somewhat strange ring when raised in behalf of vested interests—strongly objects to the measure in his letter to Thursday's Times.
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