§ MR. THOMAS O'DONNELL (Kerry, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware of the hardship inflicted on Irish girls who succeed in winning places as clerks in the Post Office by being compelled to come to London while the same training and work can be had in Dublin; and, seeing that those girls if they wish to go back to their own country are reduced £10 in their yearly income while they do exactly the same work in Dublin as in London, whether he will take their case into consideration.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe work on which women clerks are employed is of necessity to a great extent performed at headquarters; and Irish candidates who accept such appointments are under no disability which does not 986 apply equally to all those whose home is elsewhere than in London. The appointments for women clerks at Dublin and Edinburgh are filled by transfer from the London establishment; and those who apply to be thus transferred have as a matter of course to accept the Dublin and Edinburgh scale, the maximum of which is slightly lower than in London, in view of the lower cost of living.
§ MR. FLAVINBy what ingenious method of calculation have the Post Office Authorities ascertained that London air is purer than that of Dublin?