177
in his absence, as he never held an educational post higher
than that of Fourth Assistant Master at the College.
6.
With regard to the memorial from
the Senior and Junior European Staff at Queen's College, I
would in the first instance refer Your Lordship to para-
graph 5 of Mr. Chamberlain's Despatch No. 276 of the
29th August, 1902, in which it is stated that there are
special objections to the transfer of Educational Officers
to other branches of the service and that the Secretary of
State considered that such Officers should not in future
be appointed to act in posts outside their own branch of
the service. The petitioners argue (in my opinion not un-
reasonably) that the converse of this decision should also
hold good and that, if Educational Officers must not look
for promotion to other branches of the service, their pro-
motion in their own branch of the service should not be
obstructed by the intrusion into it of Officers who do not
belong to the Educational Staff. There are, however,
special circumstances in the case of the proposed transfer
of Mr. Woodcock, for not only did he originally join the
service as an Assistant Master at Queen's College and serve
in the College for 10 years, but it has always been intend-
ed that when opportunity offered he should be transferred
back