§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that officers in charge of counter duties are compelled to make good all their losses from their salaries; that at Clones, Enniskillen, and Portadown junior men and learners are frequently employed upon duties involving monetary responsibility; and that recently a learner at Clones lost 7s. in one day; and whether he will order that only skilled and experienced men and women are to be entrusted with business of this character.
LORD STANLEYIt is the general rule that officers employed on counter duties are required to make good deficiencies resulting from their errors. At offices such as those to which the hon. Member refers it is not infrequently necessary to employ junior officers on counter duties involving monetary responsibility, though such duties are entrusted as far as possible to experienced officers, but learners are not so employed unless acting as substitutes for sorting 98 clerks and telegraphists. The learner at Clones was so acting, but he did not lose 7s. in one day. He had on one day an apparent deficiency of 7s. 5½d., but 6s. was subsequently found in the drawer of another officer, where he had placed it in error.