§ Sir WILLIAM BULLasked the Postmaster-General whether, now that the assistant surveyors have been put on higher scales, he will take steps to discontinue the practice of filling most of the larger postmasterships by assistant surveyors; or, if the Postmaster-General still considers that assistant surveyors who cannot be made surveyors are rightly compensated by being given large postmasterships, whether he will consider the 507 question of a reciprocal promotion from the provincial staff to the survey branch to prevent the whole of the provincial staff suffering from a block of promotion?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELPostmasterships are staff appointments, for which all classes of Post Office servants are alike eligible; and there can therefore be no question of a compensatory appointment when such a post is filled from one class rather than another. My endeavour is in every case to find the most suitable officer for the vacancy. The training of assistant surveyors qualifies them in a particular degree for the duties of postmasters, even when, as sometimes happens, they are less suitable for the higher rank of surveyor. The whole question was brought fully before the Select Committee on Post Office Servants, who did not in their Report recommend any alteration in the existing system of appointment to pastmasterships.