§ SIR E. J. REED (Cardiff)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that the officers employed at the special cable-repeater stations attached to the engineering branch of the Post Office telegraphs dealing with American, German, and Irish telegraphic traffic have been memorialising for increased pay and advantages during the last three years; whether it is true that officers attached to the same branch (that of inspectors and district engineers' clerks) who were put on the same scale with the repeater clerks in the Fawcett scheme of 1881–2, were granted increased pay over a year ago, and in the case of those standing two years at their maximum rate were granted a year's back pay; whether repeater clerks have been several years at the maximum of their scale; and if he can say if the matter will be dealt with at an early date, and so arranged that its effects will be retrospective in favour of those officers who have been some time at the top of their class?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) Cambridge UniversityIn reply to the hon. Member, I have to say that, on representations which have recently been made to me by the Engineer-in-Chief, I have laid certain proposals before the Treasury with regard to the officials in question, and the matter is now under their Lordships' consideration.