§ MR. A. M. BROOKFIELD (Sussex, Rye)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether the Postal Department still gives any special encouragement to telegraph messengers who may wish to serve for a few years in the Army and afterwards return to the postal service; or whether it is the case that, since the abandonment of the "enlistment scheme," a soldier who has been a telegraph messenger enjoys no preference when, having passed to the Reserve, he seeks re-employment in the postal service; and, whether it is the case that telegraph messengers are still drilled with arms?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. ARNOLD MORLEY, Nottingham, E.)The rule laid down in July 1891 is still in force. Should a telegraph messenger, after his messenger service, enlist and return to the Post Office with a good character at the expiration of his service with the colours he would be allowed to count half his Army service as Post Office service so as to entitle him to a 1377 higher starting pay. Telegraph messengers are still drilled with carbines lent by the War Office, in physical and other exercises.