MARQUESS of TULLIBARDINEasked the Postmaster-General whether the War Office invites postal telegraphists to join the Royal Engineers, which invitations are published from time to time in the official Post Office circular; whether it is stated that the time served in the Royal Engineers will count in Post Office service, and if the telegraphist, when leaving the Colours, will resume the relative position in his class; whether, since these invitations were issued, the Treasury have deducted the Royal Engineers' time when assessing superannuation, the result of which will reduce the pension to a very small amount; and, in view of the fact that the unit in question is wholly employed by the Post- 1720W master-General in telegraphs and is paid from a Civil Vote, the Superannuation Act of 1887, Section 3, will be interpreted so as to cover the case in point?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe facts are substantially as stated, but no expectation is held out that service in K Company of the Royal Engineers will count as Post Office service for purposes of superannuation. The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury hold that they have no legal power, whether under the Section quoted or otherwise, to include such service for pension.