CHAPTER XI

THE POST OFFICE EMPLOYEES CONTINUE TO PRESS THE HOUSE OF COMMONS FOR INCREASES OF WAGES AND SALARIES 182

The Post Office employees demand "a new judgment on the old facts." Mr. S. Woods' Motion, in February, 1898. Mr. Steadman's Motions in February and June, 1899. Mr. Hanbury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, points out that the postal employees are demanding a House of Commons Select Committee because under such a Committee "the agitation and pressure, now distributed over the whole House, would be focussed and concentrated upon the Select Committee." Mr. Steadman's Motion, in April, 1900. Mr. Bayley's Motion, in June, 1901. Mr. Balfour, Prime Minister, confesses that the debate has filled him "with considerable anxiety as to the future of the public service if pressure of the kind which has been put upon the Government to-night is persisted in by the House." Captain Norton's Motion, in April, 1902. The Government compromises by appointing the Bradford Committee of business men. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Postmaster General, states that Members from both sides of the House "seek from him, in his position as Postmaster General, protection for them in the discharge of their public duties against the pressure sought to be put upon them by employees of the Post Office." He adds: "Even if the machinery by which our Select Committees are appointed were such as would enable us to secure a Select Committee composed of thoroughly impartial men who had committed themselves by no expression of opinion, I still think that it would not be fair to pick out fifteen Members of this House and make them marked men for the purpose of such pressure as is now distributed more or less over the whole Assembly."