§ MR. STEADMAN (Finsbury, Central)To ask the Postmaster-General if he will state at how many post offices throughout the United Kingdom (counting both sub-offices and head offices) postmen are employed; at how many offices in the United Kingdom has the postmen's scale of wages been raised through the operation of the revision which came into force on 1st January, 1908; at how many offices in the United Kingdom has the postmen's scale of pay been reduced for future entrants through the Hobhouse Report recommendations; and at how many offices in the United Kingdom is the settlement of postmen's wages still in suspense.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The classification is, as yet, so incomplete that to give the figures asked for would at present serve no useful purpose. But I may add that a much larger number of offices have been raised in scale for existing officers than reduced for future entrants.