§ MR. STEADMAN (Tower Hamlets, Stepney)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the repeated assurances of the Postmaster General, most recently embodied in the reply to a memorial from a deputation appointed by the Fawcett Association to wait on him, dated 16th February, 1900, that no officer will be called on to retire before the age of sixty years who is capable of efficiently performing the ordinary duties of his class, is to be regarded as an assurance that the performances of early morning duties, which are admittedly exceptional, and have been condemned by the official medical officers in the evidence tendered to the Tweedmouth Committee, will not be enforced as a test of an officer's fitness for the postal service.
§ MR. ANSTRUTHER (for Mr. HANBURY)The assurance was, that no officer would be retired before sixty who is capable of efficiently performing the ordinary duties of his class. In some cases those ordinary duties must involve early morning attendance, and it would be impossible to retain officers who are permanently incapable of performing that particular duty.