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to officers in receipt of salaries of more than
£1,200 a year but not necessarily occupying posts
to which free quarters wold be allotted under the
new salary scales. Clearly it would cause widespread
and justifiable discontent if such officers were now
disturbed in their occupation in order to bring into
operation a system of permanent allotment of individual
residences to particular offices.
6. A further very important difficulty arises,
however, out of the variety in the available quarters
which has already been referred to. The requirements
of individual officers also vary and it is found that
while one officer desires a large house and does not
object to its being inaccessible another attaches
greater importance to accessibility and is willing to
put up with a smaller house in order to secure that
advantage. If therefore individual houses were
allotted to all the posts carrying free quarters I
am sure that it would be found in many cases that the
house originally allotted to suit the requirements of the
present holder of a particular post would not suit
his successor and that there would be constant applications
for changes in the allotment. Permanent allotment to
individual posts is practicable where all the quarters
in question are more or less uniform in size, design and
accessibility but the necessary degree of uniformity does
not exist here. I believe therefore that the present
system of allotment is on the whole the most suitable:
the case would alter of course if it were decided to
build a large number of additional houses of more or
less uniform pattern which would be suitable for permanent
allotment to individual posts, but I do not at present