§ MR. LOUIS SINCLAIRI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he can give the amount of risk allowance paid weekly to counter officers attending to the paid charge duty at the Lombard Street Branch Office for the quarter of a century prior to the publication of the Tweedmouth Committee's Report; whether that report secured to all employees, receiving risk allowances at the date of its publication, such allowances unaltered; and whether there is a risk allowance paid weekly to the counter officer who now performs the paid charge duty at Lombard Street Branch Office; and, if so, what allowance.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINDown to May, 1897, a risk allowance of 3s. a week was paid to the officer performing the duty referred to at the Lombard Street Branch Office, but on an examination of the duties early in that year, it was found that there was no such risk attached to the duty as would justify the payment of an allowance, and it was consequently discontinued. The Tweedmouth Committee's recommendation was not intended to apply to a case of this kind. Subsequently in 1900, the duty was revised and the sale of stamps added to it, and as this addition involved a certain risk, a small allowance of 2s. a week was granted; 1336 and this is now being paid to those officers performing the duty in question who are properly entitled to receive it.