§ MR. ALFRED THOMAS (Glamorgan, E.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General if it is a standing rule in the Post Office, when a new Order is issued by the Postmaster General, to require all the officials to whom such Order applies to sign their adherence to the Order; if the Order relating to meetings of Post Office servants, issued a fortnight ago, applies to the whole of the Postal staff, and why the Telegraph clerks only were required to sign the Order; if he is aware that a number of the clerks signed the Order under protest; and if their action will render them liable to punishment, or place them at any disadvantage in the Postal Service?
§ *THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) University of CambridgeWhen a new Order is issued the heads of Departments are responsible that it is made known to their subordinates; and to this end they must take such steps as they consider necessary. The Order to which the hon. Member refers applies to the whole body of Post Office servants; but whether in one office they are called upon only to read the Order, and in another to sign it, is a matter for their own superior officer, and one in which I should not think of interfering. I am not aware whether any Post Office servants signed under protest or not. The protest, if protest was made, would not come under my official cognisance and would certainly entail no disadvantage to any officer who complies with 138 the Order. I take this opportunity of stating that the Order in question as regards shorthand writers applies only to general meetings and not to committee meetings.