§ MR. O'GRADYI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether, when a Post Office servant is punished by loss of seniority, no amount of unblemished service will suffice to restore him to his former position; and, if so, whether he 795 will modify the regulation which inflicts punishment for the whole of the man's service and denies him any power of recovery.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONIn such a case the lost seniority is irrecoverable, except in so far as it might be regained by promotion to a superior class. To revise the rule would inflict injury on the reduced officer's colleagues whose conduct was better than his own and below whom be had been placed. Loss of seniority is a punishment imposed only in cases of grave misconduct; and I am not prepared to take any step which would weaken its effect.