§ Mr. AMMONasked the Postmaster-General the authority under which the following powers of the Investigation Branch are exercised, namely, the interrogation, searching, and detention of members of the Post Office staff, the interrogation, searching, and detention of wives, relatives, and other friends of members of the staff, the searching of the homes of members of the staff, and the removal of property from the homes of members of the staff?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONThe Investigation Branch of the Post Office acts under my authority and possesses no special legal powers. Interrogation, detention and search is only resorted to with the assent of the person concerned, and no instance is known where the wife, friends or relatives of a Post Office servant have been searched or detained, unless detected in the act of cashing monetary documents stolen from the post. I may say that the object of the inquiries conducted by the Investigation Branch is to elicit the facts and thereby not merely to detect the guilty but to enable innocent persons to clear themselves from suspicion which would otherwise attach to them. Property is only removed from the house of a Post Office servant where there is good reason to believe it is stolen or is the proceeds of theft.