§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Postmaster-General, with regard to the recent preferment of the salaried sub-postmaster of Ilkeston to the postmastership of Castlerea, whether he can state the date of the Civil Service certificate of the appointee in this instance and the salary and allowances attached to the Ilkeston office; whether Ilkeston is a Crown 1596 office; if not, what is the amount of the grant in respect of house rent.
§ MR. FIELDTo ask the Postmaster-General whether the lately vacant postmastership of Castlerea has recently been filled by the transfer of Mr. Cooper, lately salaried sub-postmaster of Ilkeston, Nottingham; whether he will state the annual emoluments received by Mr. Cooper at Ilkeston and the total length of his established service in the Post Office, the number of Irish Post Office officials who applied for the postmastership of Castlerea, and the annual emoluments and total length of established service of the senior recommended Irish candidate; and, seeing that all Post Office officials are paid by the public, will he explain, for their information, how he selects the best qualified candidate from amongst the applicants, who are necessarily serving in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland and under different superiors.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) Mr. Cooper has declined the appointment of postmaster at Castlerea, and it has been conferred upon an Irish candidate. The manner in which the best qualified candidates are selected for postmaster-ships was recently explained in detail to the Select Committee on Post Office Servants. It is rather too complicated a matter, I fear, to explain fully in answer to a Question in this House.