§ MR. REESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether the strike among the telegraph staff in India, which has greatly dislocated business, has ended; and whether the business of the department is now proceeding in the usual course.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe Government of India reported last week that the strike among the telegraph staff in India was at an end, and I understand that the business of the department is proceeding in the usual course.
§ MR. REESMay I ask whether this was the outcome of endeavouring to impose English methods on Indian employees?
§ MR. BUCHANANI do not think so.
§ MR. JOHN WARD (Stoke-on-Trent)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether his attention has been called to the discontent of the Indian telegraph operators and signallers with the new scheme of duties introduced by Mr. Newlands, the English expert, who has been lent by the British Post Office to the Indian Administration; and what action, if any, it is proposed to take in the matter.
§ MR. BUCHANANThe discontent of the Indian telegraph operators and signallers with the new scheme of duties has been met by an arrangement under which the new system will have a fair trial for a limited period—four or five weeks I think—and a Committee, on which the subordinate staff will be represented, will be appointed to examine 1086 the system during trial. We have every reason to hope that an accommodation will be reached.
§ MR. JOHN WARDIs this the same Mr. Newlands who was the cause of so much difficulty in the Home Post Office?
§ [No Answer was returned.]