§ MR. T. M. HEALY (Louth, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he will explain why arrears of pay from the date of the Treasury letter to the date of the Postmaster General's sanction were not paid to officers of Cork Post Office promoted on 16th February, 1900, as they were to the male superintendent and the female assistant superintendent of telegraphs at Cork and to Dublin officers promoted in May, 1899; and seeing that in offices in Great Britain and Ireland of equal importance to Cork similar promotions have not been dated seven months and twelve days subsequent to the Treasury letter, that the promotions at Cork were made in order of seniority, avoiding delay in selecting, and that the promotions of the Cork officers were delayed through no fault of theirs, he will now direct that the promotions be antedated to the date of the Treasury letter, or to the dates on which these officers undertook the responsibilities of the higher positions.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe Postmaster General is not prepared to depart in this case from the usual practice, in accordance with which an officer receives the pay of a higher class from the date on which he is promoted to that class. It has already been explained to the hon. Member that as regards the superintendent the revision merely improved his scale of salary, and as regards the woman supervisor the revision only converted the assistant supervisorship into a supervisorship, and that these 1348 two officers were consequently able to receive their improved scale of pay at once.