Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the Postmaster-General whether it is upon his instruction or with his sanction that postmasters are refusing the applications of men who are applying for temporary employment at Christmas unless they can prove that their names appear on either the Distress Committee or the Guild of Help register; whether he is aware that there are a large number of men of good character in every district who are unemployed and who sign the unemployed register of their own society who, owing to the above instruction or regulation, are prevented from obtaining this temporary employment; and whether he will give instructions that, so long as the applicants are persons of good character and capable of performing the work, it must not be a condition that their names must be on the register of either a Guild of Help or Distress Committee.
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§ Mr. SYDNEY BUXTONIt is not a condition that the name should be on the register of a Labour Exchange or of a Distress Committee. As I stated in this House on the 21st October and the 3rd ultimo, postmasters have been instructed to take the casual force required to meet Christmas pressure as far as possible from among the genuinely unemployed, and to select a certain number of men on the recommendation of the Labour Exchange, or, if no such Exchange exists, of the local Distress Committee. No further instructions seem necessary.