§ Mr. THORNEasked the Postmaster-General whether he can give the number of persons employed in an auxiliary capacity in his Department who are in receipt of pensions, state or otherwise, on retirement from their previous employment; how many auxiliary postmen have been engaged for the Christmas traffic; the number taken from the Employment Exchange who had registered as unemployed persons; and the total number of persons engaged for the Christmas period?
§ Major TRYONIt is the practice, where possible, to recruit fur auxiliary employment persons who have other sources of livelihood such as a pension, but the number of pensioners actually employed—the great majority of whom are Army or Navy pensioners—could only be obtained by an elaborate investigation. The temporary staffs recruited for the Christmas period are obtained from Employment Exchanges where such exchanges exist. As the numbers of these staffs will depend on local requirements I am unable to give an exact figure, but I anticipate that about 70,000 extra men will be employed this Christmas.