§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)To ask the Postmaster-General if he can state whether, seeing that the request of the London branch of the Postal Telegraph Clerks Association for a personal interview for the purpose of asking for a revision of the scales of pay, and the desire that the claim for operators to receive a maximum salary of £190 per annum should be submitted to arbitration were refused; and that a section of the staff some of them members of this Association, have been promised a personal interview since the announcement of the reference of the whole question to the consideration of five business men, he is now prepared to give the Association the same treatment as the more senior men, and settle the case by receiving the men and inquiring personally into the matters.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) All the facts in relation to the claim of certain operators in the Central Telegraph Office to receive a maximum salary of £190 are well known to me; I have myself personally investigated their case, and have given a decision which, as far as I am concerned, must be considered as final. Under these circumstances, a personal interview upon the subject is unnecessary.