He selects for himself a staff of civilians (the cab-met du ministre), which is divided into bureaux for the despatch of business.
The hospices and hpitaux and Guadeloupe the bureaux de bienfaisance, the founda- Martinique tion of which is optional for the commune, St Pierre and Miquel are managed by committees consisting of the mayor of the municipality and six Total in Am members, two elected by the municipal council and four nominated by the prefect.
The bureaux de bien- Total in 0cc faisance in the larger centres are aided by unpaid workers (commissaires or dames de charit), and in the big towns by paid inquiry officers.
Bureaux dassistance exist in every commune, and are managed by the combined committees of the hospices and the bureaux de bienfaisance or by one of these in municipalities, where only one of those institutions exists.
Meanwhile the employment of the Arabic language had been steadily gaining ground, and in 706 it was made the official language of the bureaux, though the occasional use of Greek for this purpose is attested by documents as late as the year 780.