§ 35. Mr. GILLETTasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the staff at the Bristol Post Office are dissatisfied with the policy applied this year in the preparation of the acting list, resulting in the exclusion of a high proportion of the senior officers; that insistence on the performance of writing duties by the officers to be selected for the acting list debars many of the sorting clerks and telegraphists who cannot, under the terms of the rotation scheme, hope to perform writing duties until late in life and debars all but a small number of postmen altogether; and that permission to be tried on acting duties has been refused to officers considered to possess suitable qualifications; and whether, in all the circumstances, he will see that the acting list is revised on the more equitable lines followed in recent years?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONI have already had the circumstances under consideration and am satisfied that the acting list was compiled in accordance with the Regulations. It is not the case that employment on the writing duty rota is regarded as a sine qua non for inclusion in the acting list. I am also assured that none of the officers who have appealed unsuccessfully for trial on higher duties could be regarded as suitably qualified.