CHAPTER XIII

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE SERVANTS, 1906 226

The Post Office Civil Servants' Unions demand the adoption of the Bradford Committee Report. Lord Stanley, Postmaster General, applies the words "blackmail" and "blood-sucking" to the postal employees' methods. Captain Norton moves for a House of Commons Select Committee. Mr. Austen Chamberlain, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in vain asks the Opposition Party's support for a Select Committee to which shall be referred the question of the feasibility of establishing a permanent, non-political Commission which shall establish general principles for settling disputes between the civil servants and the Government of the day. Captain Norton's Motion is lost, nine Ministerial supporters voting for it, and only two Opposition members voting against it. Mr. J. Henniker Heaton's appeal to the British public for "An End to Political Patronage." The Post Office employees, in the campaign preceding the General Election of January, 1906, induce nearly 450 of the 670 parliamentary candidates who succeeded in being elected, to pledge themselves to vote for a House of Commons Select Committee on Post Office Wages. Immediately upon the opening of Parliament, the Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman Liberal Ministry gives the Post Office employees a House of Commons Select Committee.