§ MR. CLAUDE HAYI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether there is at present a lack of candidates for female appointments in the Post Office Savings Bank and other branches of the Post Office; whether boy clerks who are capable of performing the work are being discharged daily; and whether he will consider the advisability of re-arranging the staff, so that instead of endeavouring to induce girls to undertake duties under his Department he will utilise the material already to hand by the permanent retention of suitable boy clerks.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONI have no reason to suppose that there is now any lack of candidates for the female appointments mentioned. The boy clerks to whom the hon. Member refers are apparently those who, in accordance with the conditions of their employment, which apply to the whole Civil Service, terminate their service at the age of twenty. One of the advantages gained by the recent re-arrangement in the Savings Bank is that it will permit of some reduction in the number of boy clerks employed.
§ MR. CLAUDE HAYOf boy clerks?
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONIn this case the boy clerks are not under the 645 Post Office, and they leave at twenty under the Treasury regulations.