MR. ENGLEDEWI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he will consider the desirability of allowing young men seeking employment in the Post Office as probationers, who do so with the hope of getting permanent employment under that Department in the future, to be examined by their medical officer in the first instance, and, when taken on as probationers, not allow the rule to continue whereby a probationer may act as such for many years at a nominal salary in the hope of being able to get on the permanent staff, and at the end of that time find he is unable to pass the medical examination?
§ MR. HANBURYIt is already the practice to a considerable extent to require young persons seeking employment in the Post Office to be medically examined before their employment is authorised. All open competition candidates are required to satisfy the medical officer before they are admitted; and also all paid learners and all assistant postmen are now required to obtain Civil Service certificates, and a satisfactory medical report is one of the conditions of obtaining such certificates. But in the case of unpaid learners and persons employed by postmasters as assistants this rule does not prevail, and, having regard to the conditions of their employment, it is not deemed desirable to submit them to a medical examination.