§ MR. PATRICK O'BRIEN (Kilkenny)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, seeing that the Tweedmouth Committee recommended that only established postmen were to be permitted to enter into limited competition for the positions of male learners, he can explain why members of the auxiliary staff have been allowed to compete for these appointments.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe Tweedmouth Committee do not appear to have made the recommendation attributed to them, but stated that a scheme would shortly come into operation by which a third of the vacancies for sorting clerks and telegraphists at certain provincial offices would, in future, be reserved for postmen, postmasters' assistants, and telegraph messengers. The arrangement, under which auxiliary postmen are allowed to compete, has been in operation at twenty-nine of the largest towns during the last three or four years, and whilst preference is given to the claims of established postmen, other candidates have been admitted to the competitions from the first.