§ MR. MAURICE HEALYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the attention of the Postmaster General has been called to the evidence given before the Departmental Committee on the Post Office Establishment by Mr. Lewin Hill, head of the provincial postmen, with reference to the preliminary examination necessary for postmen, in which he is reported to have stated that in Ireland a candidate was more sure to get through the examination but was not worth so much when he had passed, that they would often much rather have an Englishman or Scotchman who could not pass than an Irishman who could, and that Irishmen had a large faculty for passing examinations but not for being useful; whether it has been Mr. Hill's practice to act on the views thus expressed in the appointment of postmen; and, whether the Postmaster General has been cognisant of the existence of such a practice?
§ * MR. HANBURYThe attention of the Postmaster General has not been called to the evidence given by Mr. Lewin Hill before Lord Tweedmouth's Committee on Post Office Establishments. No such statement as that mentioned by the hon. Member appears in the official Report of the evidence. Some remarks which Mr. Hill made before the Committee as to the faculty of Irishmen for passing examinations were made—as I am informed—in joke, and were not treated as part of the official evidence, from which I have already stated they have been omitted. Mr. Lewin Hill in the past has had nothing to do with the appointment of postmen. A candidate for the position of postman has to pass exactly the same examination whether he be English, Scotch, or Irish.