§ Mr. WARDLEasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that it was stated in official evidence before the Select Committee that for all overseerships for provincial sorting clerks and telegraphists then in existence full justification had to be shown before these positions were authorised; whether a Departmental inquiry is being conducted for the purpose of reducing the number of these overseers; and whether, in view of the fact that these positions were shown to the Select Committee to have been justified, he will state the grounds for any contemplated reduction of their numbers?
§ Mr. SYDNEY BUXTONI should remind my hon. Friend that the Parliamentary Committee stated (paragraph 443) that they had great difficulty in following the classification of overseers in the provinces, and suggested that simplification was desirable. The inquiry to which my hon. Friend is probably alluding has for its object the ascertainment as to whether similar duties are being performed by officers of similar ranks.