§ MR. CONYBEAREI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether the Rule which has now been superseded, prohibiting postmen from attending meetings outside the Post Office buildings, applied to meetings held to discuss questions connected with their "duties or pay;" whether in the Notice recently issued by the Postmaster General for the regulation or abolition of meetings, the term "official questions" is used; and1 whether a postmen who attends a meeting in order to call attention to his low wages, will be liable to be punished for discussing official questions?
§ MR. RAIKESThere has been no variation of terms, as the hon. Member's inquiry would seem to imply. "Official questions" was the term employed in Lord Stanley of Alderley's Notice of March, 1866; and the same term is employed in the Notice issued by myself. As I have had occasion to point out more than once, postmen are no longer forbidden, as they were until a few months ago, to hold meetings outside the Post Office buildings for the discussion of their rates of pay or any other official question. All that is required of them is that in connection with such meetings they shall comply with the necessary Regulations.
§ MR. CONYBEAREI beg to ask the Postmaster General how many boys, and of what age, are being employed at the Western District Office delivering letters in place of men suspended for attending their Union meetings?
§ MR. RAIKESSix boys. Five are 18 years of age, and one is 19.