HC Deb 04 May 1871 vol 206 cc154-5
MR. NOEL

asked the Postmaster General, Whether instructions have been given at the various Telegraph Offices that the messages sent from and delivered at those offices are to be considered strictly private and confidential, and are not to be divulged by the officials employed; and, if such is the case, whether he will insist upon such instructions being rigidly enforced?

MR. MONSELL

Sir, the best answer I can give to the first part of the Question of the hon. Gentleman will be to read some extracts from the instructions which were issued to every postal telegraph office before the transfer of the telegraphs to the Government, and which are strictly enforced— The officers in postal telegraph offices must in the first place understand that the messages which pass through their hands are to be regarded by them as strictly confidential communications, and that any breach of confidence on their part will be visited with severe punishment. There is also a clause calling their attention to the effect that by the Telegraph Act any person infringing that regulation would subject himself liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months. The next clause says— In order to carry out the intentions of the Act the Postmaster General directs that no officer of the Department shall have access to the instrument-room of any postal telegraph office, or to that part of the room in which the instrument is placed, unless his official duties require him to be there. Only one case has been brought to my notice since I came into office of these rules having been infringed. That was the case of a clerk who divulged a portion of a message which was connected with turf operations. The clerk in question bore the highest character, he had been a long time in the employ of the telegraph company, to whom he had given the greatest satisfaction, and he was an excellent public servant in every respect; but, nevertheless, I deemed it my duty to dismiss him. If the hon. Gentleman asks this Question in cones- quence of a knowledge or suspicion on his part of any infringement of the rules I have just mentioned, I will venture to say I think it is his duty to communicate his suspicions and the evidence on which they are founded to me. If he does so I promise him that the matter shall be fully investigated, and that if culpability can be brought home to any officer of the Department he shall be most severely dealt with.