§ MR. CLAUDE HAY (Shoreditch, Hoxton)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he will furnish to the House before the Post Office Estimates are discussed the full text of the regulations under which associations, political or other, are permitted or officially recognised when formed by postal servants.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) There are no regulations specifically dealing with political associations. The 6 regulations or rules governing the conduct of officers of the Post Office as public servants in relation to political matters are as follows: Rule 42. (a) Officers of the Post Office, having been relieved of the electoral disabilities to which they were formerly subject, are now eligible to be placed on the parliamentary register, and to vote at a Parliamentary election. Nevertheless, it is expected of them as public servants that they should maintain a certain reserve in political matters, and not put themselves forward on one side or the other. (b) This is especially the case with postmasters and sub-postmasters, whose study it should be to retain that confidence of their neighbours and carefully to avoid doing anything that may lend colour to the suggestion that in the discharge of their official duties they are influenced by political or party motives. (c) On this subject the following regulations have been laid down: (i.) That no postmaster, sub-postmaster, or other servant of the Department shall serve on a committee having for its object to promote or prevent the return of a particular candidate to Parliament; (ii.) That he shall not support or oppose any particular candidate or party either by public speaking or writing; (iii.) That no notice soliciting votes for any particular candidate shall be exhibited either within or without any post office or other building under the control of the Department; and that within such buildings no memorial or address with a party object shall lie for signature or be exhibited. (d) If it be observed that a mail cart has affixed to it a placard soliciting votes for a particular candidate, it is the duty of the postmaster to have the placard immediately removed and to take the earliest opportunity of cautioning the contractor against a repetition of the impropriety. Postmen and other officers of the Department are forbidden, when in uniform, to take part in any demonstration of a party or political character. (e) So far as regards the districts in which servants of the Post Office are officially employed, the rule prohibiting their active interference in Parliamentary elections applies to elections for county councils. (f) The duties of a county councillor are regarded as incompatible with those 7 which Post Office servants have to perform, and no Post Office servant, therefore, is allowed to become a candidate for a county council or to serve on one. (g) An officer of the Post Office may become a candidate for or serve on a district or municipal as well as a parish council. It must be understood, however, that in any case in which the duties either of the district or of the municipal or parish council conflict with those of the Post Office the officer concerned may be required to retire from the district, municipal, or parish council, as the case may be. On 28th August, 1893, Mr. Gladstone, as First Lord of the Treasury, and speaking officially in the House, stated as follows: "It is eminently desirable that there should be uniformity throughout the Civil Service and that the servants of the Post Office should be upon the same footing as those of the other Departments in respect to the franchise. As regards the Parliamentary franchise there can be no question that its exercise is absolutely free from external interference, although, of course, it is subject to the general obligation which affects the public servants, in common with all other voters, to use the franchise for the public good. Questions may be raised, on which I have no judgment to give on the part of the Government, as to how far, for example, it is desirable for public functionaries to make use of their position as voters for the purpose of obtaining from candidates promises or engagements tending directly to the advantage of public servants in respect of pay and promotion. These are matters which we deem not undeserving of consideration; but still they do not form the subject of any decision on the part of Her Majesty's Government in the nature of a restraint. The only restriction by the custom of the public service on persons employed is that persons in the permanent employment of the State shall not take a prominent or active part in political contests, and it is not intended in future that any other restrictive rule should be imposed on the service of the Post Office. As regards public meetings not of a political character, but relating to official questions, the Postmaster-General has decided to withdraw the restrictions at present in force. But in the Post 8 Office, as in other Departments, it must be clearly understood that the right must be exercised subject to a due regard for the discipline of the public service."