§ MR. WARDLE (Stockport)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that, in Paragraph 53 of the Hobhouse Report, it was recommended that auxiliary labour should be limited as far as possible, and that persons working full time should not in future be engaged while suitable men having little or no employment are available; whether he has accepted this recommendation; and whether, seeing that recently men have been asked for to perform letter sorting in Liverpool, and engaged on the express understanding that they must be engaged outside the office, in regular employment, he will investigate the circumstances.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) I have not lost sight of the Committee's recommendation, with which I am in accord, and I am considering how far it is practicable to adopt it. I concur generally with the view that men in full- 1194 time employment outside the Post Office should not be employed as auxiliaries. I may say, at once, however, that in my opinion it is very undesirable to employ men who have no other employment on auxiliary duties which only occupy three or four hours a day. This principle was rightly applied in the case of certain men recently selected at Liverpool.