§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the Postmaster General whether the necessity for reducing the number of employés in the wood workshops at the Post Office factories is due to the practice of putting work out to contract; and if he can state the number of men employed in these shops now as compared with five years ago; and if it is his policy to close them altogether?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe reduction is not due to the practice of putting work out to contract but to a falling off in the demand for wood-work in the Post Office. No contract for wood-work only has for a long time been placed with an outside firm except in cases in which the factory quotation, either as to price or rate of delivery, was quite unsuitable. The number of men now employed in the wood-working shops as compared with five years ago is forty-two as against 102. I am awaiting the report of a committee, over which my hon. Friend the Assistant Postmaster-General is presiding, before announcing any policy as regards the future of the Post Office factories.