§ MR. STEADMANI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the Controller of the Post Office Savings Bank has refused to allow a legally constituted trade union of Government workers at Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Factory to open an account in the Post Office Savings Bank; and, if so, will he state the reason for not allowing unions of Government workers 355 the same privileges as granted to other unions?
§ MR. HANBURYThe objects of the Royal Gunpowder Factory Employees Union, as set forth in the copy of rules furnished by the applicants, did not bring the society within the scope of the Post Office Savings Bank Regulations which are set out in pages 436 and 437 of the Post Office Guide. Registration under the Trades Union Acts does not give a society any statutory right to deposit its funds in the Post Office Savings Bank as appears to be supposed, and only those societies (not being registered friendly societies) are entitled to deposit which can be held to come within the category of charitable societies. There is, of course, no distinction between societies whose members are in the employ of the Government and those formed of other workers.