§ 26. Mr. WILLIAM THORNEasked the Postmaster-General whether during the present year learners in the Central Telegraph Office have been compelled to accept appointments in the London postal service, owing to an official intimation that they could not be appointed in the central office within the limit of two years as laid down by the Select Committee; whether, notwithstanding this action, an advertisement has appeared in the current issue of the Post Office Circular inviting the provincial staffs to volunteer for prospective vacancies in the Central Telegraph Office; and whether he will state the causes which in January and February of this year made it necessary for these learners to be practically forced to accept an appointment with a lower maximum and now allow an appeal to the provincial staffs for recruitment?
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. Herbert Samuel)As it seemed probable early in the present year that difficulty might arise in appointing some of the learners in the Central Telegraph Office within two years, it was thought right to offer them vacancies which happened to exist in the London postal service, though they were not told that they could not be appointed within the two years. They were under no compulsion to accept the offer, and the few who did so might have elected to wait for later vacancies in the Central Telegraph Office. The additional vacancies now being filled by transfer from the provinces had not then occurred, and were not foreseen.