§ MR J. DEVLINTo ask the Postmaster-General whether his attention has been called to the unsanitary condition of the premises in which the messenger boys employed at the Belfast post office are given military drill; whether the boys have been given to understand that they cannot receive promotion to the rank of postman until they have first served in the Army; if so, whether this is due to a determination on the part of the Government to make the Post Office a recruiting ground for the Army; and, if so, what action he proposes to take in the matter.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I have made inquiry in regard to the first part of the hon. Member's Question, and cannot learn that any suggestion has ever been made to the effect that the premises in which the boy messengers at Belfast are drilled are in an unsanitary condition. None of the messengers have been advised to enlist in the Army, and it is certainly not my intention to make the post office a recruiting ground for the Army. At the same time the boys know, no doubt, under a long-standing arrangement with the War Office, that ex-soldiers obtain nearly half the vacant places for postmen.