Mr. TYSON WILSONasked the Postmaster-General whether certain members of the staff of the Post Office telephone and telegraph engineering department at present with the Royal Engineers Signal Corps stationed at Biggleswade, receiving full civil pay in addition to Army pay and allowances, are being prepared for overseas draft at a time when his Department is experiencing the great difficulty in finding qualified men to assist in the work of maintaining, reconstructing, and restoring 1415W the efficiency of the home telephone and telegraph service; and whether he proposes to take any steps which will bring about the release from the Army of all Post Office servants who at present are in receipt of full civil pay, so that their services could be used in a less costly and more valuable direction?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI have been informed that a number of Post Office engineering staff in the Royal Engineers Signal Section have been put on draft for overseas; but I am not aware that there are among them any men who are eligible for demobilisation. While the Poet Office would welcome the return to civil duty of all its engineering staff in the forces, I cannot press for any special exemption from the ordinary Regulations in favour of these men.