§ MR. FLYNNI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether his attention has been called to a circular issued in his name, and published in Belfast, to the effect that no telegraph messenger will get an appointment as a postman, as such appointments are to be in future given to Army and Navy pensioners; and whether this rule is to extend to the boys now acting as messengers, or is merely confined to messengers to be appointed in the future?
§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONNo such notice has been issued at Belfast. The general instructions to surveyors and postmasters, issued under the Postmaster General's direction on the 10th November last, were to the effect that soldiers were, as far as possible, to be nominated as postmen, but that this arrangement was not to interfere with any existing engagements, actual or implied. Telegraph messengers employed before the above date, who had been led to expect employment as postmen, are still being nominated as such when old 155 enough, and in other ways suitable. Messengers employed after that date will, as a rule, not be so nominated; but if on reaching the age of 18 they enlist in the Army, and bear a good character on passing into the Reserve, they will be given a preference over other soldiers for employment in a permanent capacity in the Post Office, and, if so then employed, they will be allowed to count as service in the Post Office half the time spent with the Colours.