§ MR. O. V. MORGAN (Battersea)asked the Postmaster General, If he will state the number of senior and first-class male telegraphists in the Metropolitan Districts at present engaged on purely clerical duties which are usually performed by clerks on the major establishment, also the number of first-class telegraphists in charge of branch offices; and, whether he could recommend an addition to the senior class to relieve the present congestion at the maximum of the first-class?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES) (Cambridge University)There are five senior and two first-class telegraphists in the Metropolitan District engaged either wholly or in part on clerical duties of a minor character as distinguished from ordinary manipulative duties. In the Metropolitan District 12 first-class telegraphists are in entire charge, and nine are in partial charge of branch post offices. The minor clerical duties, upon which certain senior and first-class telegraphists are, as already stated, employed, are duties proper to the officers in question; and, indeed, at the general re-adjustment in 1881, the number of senior and first-class telegraphists in the Metropolitan District was increased in order to make provision for these very duties. It would not be for the public interest to make an addition to the class of senior telegraphists merely with a view to provide a more rapid flow of promotion for officers on the first-class, the number of officers on each class being fixed strictly in accordance with the number of superior duties to be performed.