§ MR. HORACE PLUNKETT (Dublin County, S.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing 967 the Postmaster General, whether it was with the knowledge and permission of the Postmaster General that a junior telegraphist in the Dublin General Post Office, who, on 15th January last, applied for leave to attend an examination for men clerkships of the Second Division, and offered to forfeit his salary for the time absent, and to pay for substitutes provided by the Department at overtime rates, was, on 21st January, informed that he must obtain his own substitutes in accordance with instructions recently issued; and whether, seeing that these instructions practically debar telegraphists from exercising their right to sit at Civil Service examinations, it being frequently impossible for them to obtain substitutes by reason of the changeable nature of the duties and the fluctuations of the work, the Postmaster General will consider the advisability of conceding to all telegraphists a privilege similar to that recently given to boy clerks and boy copyists, viz., the concession of full pay and leave of absence while attending Civil Service examinations?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Postmaster General has no knowledge of the circumstances alleged at Dublin, but he will have inquiries made on the subject, and will communicate the result to the hon. Member.