§ Mr. T. M. HEALYasked the Postmaster-General why the ten senior men in the General Post Office Registry, who were offered posts at the Insurance Commission last October, have not received them; whether three men with no insurance experience were held to be better qualified 704W than three with eight months' experience; are three men who are not Welsh being sent to Cardiff, while Welsh-speaking Welshmen senior to them in the General Post Office Registry have been refused the posts; will he say why the ten registry assistants were not taken in strict order of seniority last July when the Insurance Commissioners asked for them; is he aware that the men who protested last July and were told that the ten men were those who could be most easily spared are now being told that the most suitable officers have been selected; what was the necessity of exhibiting a notice inviting applications for assistant clerkships when three men (and no one else) who had previously been offered the posts were afterwards sent; and what compensation will the Registry Staff (General Post Office) receive?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELIn July last the English Insurance Commissioners asked the Post Office for temporary assistance in the work of their registry, and the ten most suitable registry assistants who could be spared at the moment were lent to them. Subsequently the Commissioners proposed to appoint these officers permanently to their Department; but, as the selections made in July had been confined to those suitable officers who could be spared at the time, it was thought right to issue to the whole of the second class of registry assistants a general invitation to apply for transfer. Of the ten men finally selected from amongst the applicants as being the most suitable for transfer, seven were already on loan and the remaining three were men who were not available when the loan was arranged in July. The Welsh Insurance Commissioners subsequently asked for the transfer to the Welsh Commission of the three officers who were on loan and failed to obtain appointments in the English Commission, and no doubt the Welsh Commissioners had satisfied themselves of the suitability of the men for the work which they would be called upon to perform. I fail to see that any compensation is due to those members of the registry staff who were not successful in obtaining appointments in either of the insurance commissions.