§ MR. STEADMANI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he can explain on what ground two ex-telegraph messengers, named Pidgeon and Cavill, employed in the Bristol office, who took outside employment, one at sea, and the other in a grocer's warehouse for about two years, and then re-entered the service as established postmen, are given seniority, with all its attendant advantages, over several postmen who went direct from 1298 the messengers' to the postmen's class prior to the return of these messengers to the service; and whether there is any rule by which broken service is secured seniority over continuous service.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HANBURY, Preston)The men referred to were not re-employed as established but as auxiliary postmen. When the statement of their service as unestablished officers was submitted in 1893, with a view to obtaining established appointments, no reference was made to the fact that their service had been broken, and their order of seniority was decided according to the length of their supposed unestablished service. Steps will now be taken to give these men their proper position on the class. The answer to the latter part of the hon. Member's question is in the negative.