§ 61. Mr. NAYLORasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he will state the circumstances under which 7,000 copies of the Glasgow Telephone Directory produced at the Government printing establishment at Harrow were spoiled and had to be reprinted; whether he is aware that the overseer responsible for this work is a non-union volunteer, and that the overseer originally in charge of the work has been reduced to the position of journeyman for having taken part in the general strike; and whether he will consider the advisability of the original overseer being reinstated?
§ Mr. McNEILLI am afraid that the hon. Member has been given an incorrect version of the incident. The Glasgow Telephone Directory is a book of 240 pages. Owing to the oversight of a press-reviser in not changing a whole-page advertisement, 7,000 copies of that single leaf, not of the whole work, had to be reprinted. This press-reviser is not the overseer referred to in the question. He happens to be a trade unionist, who took part in the strike and was subsequently re-engaged in the same position. The action taken in regard to the overseer was strictly in accordance with the declared policy of the Government in regard to giving preference to men who volunteered for service during the strike.