The officers and employees formerly in the employ of the comptroller of the treasury, who were transferred to and continued as employees of the state tax department by virtue of an act entitled “An act to supplement chapter two hundred and seventy-eight of the laws of nineteen hundred and seventeen, being an act entitled “An act concerning the officers or employments of appraisers and employees appointed or employed by the comptroller of the treasury pursuant to the provisions of an act entitled “A supplement to an act entitled “An act to tax the transfer of property of resident and nonresident decedents by devise, bequests, descent, distribution by statute, gift, deed, grant, bargain and sale, in certain cases,’ approved April twentieth, one thousand nine hundred and nine,” approved March twenty-sixth, one thousand nine hundred and fourteen,’ approved April fourth, nineteen hundred and seventeen,” approved April twenty-first, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one (L.1931, c. 202, p. 502), shall be retained in their offices and positions in the state tax department unless removed in accordance with the civil service laws.