§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he can state his intentions with reference to the claim that the maximum salary of telegraphists should be increased; and whether, in view of the fact that the wages paid in English able companies and in the State Telegraph Services of France, Holland, Belgium, and Germany are in excess of those paid to postal telegraphists in England, and that the Bradford Committee recommended considerable increases, he is prepared to raise the salaries of this staff to the level of that paid for similar work elsewhere.
LORD STANLEYI am not prepared to admit the validity of the arguments embodied in the hon. Member's Question; and I have no intention of raising the maximum pay of the general body of telegraphists in London, viz., £160 a year. But I hope to make some improvement in the pay of the cable-room staff of the Central Telegraph Office, which forms a separate establishment.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLHaving regard to the promise made to these men why is not good faith kept with them? Are they to be treated in the same way as the hon. Member for King's Lynn?
§ [No Answer was returned.]