§ Mr. REMNANTasked the Postmaster-General whether it is his intention to allow on the transfer of the National Telephone Company's system to the State, all those members of the company's staff who are at present qualifying for a pension under an existing scheme to continue so to qualify under the State?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELAs promised in the Memorandum read in this House on the 9th August, 1905, by the then Postmaster-General, members of the National Telephone Company's staff will enjoy the advantages and be subject to the conditions of the rank or grade in the Post Office service to which they are admitted. It follows from this that transferred officers will obtain pensionable status if they are placed, either at once or at some subsequent date, in positions which are pensionable under the ordinary rules of the Civil Service. The fact that an officer contributed to the company's pension fund will not affect the question of his status in the Post Office, but I anticipate that almost all the officers pensionable by the company will, on transfer, be placed in pensionable offices, while a large number of officers whose posts under the company are not pensionable will be transferred to grades in the Post Office service which enjoy pension rights.