§ MR. A. DEWAR (Edinburgh, S.)To ask the Postmaster-General whether telegraphists at Edinburgh are forced to leave the city and take up seasonal duty at other offices; whether the subsistence allowance granted by the Department is 3s. a day, and whether this amount has been held to be inadequate by the staff; and whether he will consider the advisability of asking for volunteers rather than compelling members of the staff to leave their homes and suffer pecuniary loss without hope of reimbursement.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) All officers of the Post Office are liable to be detached from their head-quarters when the exigences of the service render it necessary, though of course their convenience is consulted as far as possible, and when suitable volunteers are forthcoming they are first selected. In each case the officer's reasonable additional expenses are defrayed by the Department, and I am not aware of any case where employment on season duty has involved an officer in pecuniary loss. Any such case, if brought to my notice, would receive consideration.