CHAPTER XIX
THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL AND
THE PERMANENT STAFF
If the Post Office were a private or joint-stock company, the office of Postmaster-General would be an anachronism; the Secretary would be the Chairman of the Company, and the Assistant Secretaries would be the Board of Management. I do not pretend that this is an accurate estimate of what would happen if the Post Office were disestablished, but there is no doubt that the duties of the Chairman and Board of Management in a business undertaking correspond very closely to those performed by the Secretary of the Post Office and his Assistants.
The State, however, controls the Post Office, and the necessity therefore arises for the supreme head of the Department to be a member of the Government of the day, and under this arrangement the position of the Secretary resembles somewhat that of the general manager of a company.
Now the part which a Postmaster-General takes in the control of the Department depends very largely on his own inclination and strength of character. He is a bird of passage; the changes and chances of parliamentary life bring about a rapid succession of Postmasters-General, and the office is often regarded in Government circles as merely a stepping-stone to higher things. The Postmaster-General has to defend the policy and conduct of his Department in Parliament, and he has to pilot through the House in which he may be sitting all measures relating to the Post Office. He has magnificent opportunities, and as he is the largest employer of labour in the country, his policy on all industrial and working-class questions is a matter of national concern.
We often hear the question asked, “Does a change of Postmaster-General make any difference to the Post Office?” A change certainly makes sometimes a great difference to the staff. When Mr. Sydney Buxton became Postmaster-General in 1905 he immediately took a step which has had far-reaching consequences. He announced that he would recognise officially the associations of the employés, and he was prepared to deal with grievances of the staff through representatives from the associations. That may or may not have been a step dictated by political considerations; but my point is that it was done by the personal action of the Postmaster-General. Moreover, the effect of this policy has been to set an example to other large employers of labour in the country, and in dealing with the grievances of their servants many have followed the lead of the Post Office.
A change of Postmaster-General may also affect considerably the public. In modern times Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Raikes have been the Postmasters-General who perhaps made their influence felt most at the Post Office and in the country. Mr. Fawcett brought to his duties a knowledge of finance and a keen interest in Post Office problems. He infused a certain enthusiasm for reforming schemes into the administrative staff, and the years of his rule were busy and fruitful of results. He possessed ideas of his own as to what the Post Office might be to the nation, and his premature death was regretted by none more keenly than by Post Office servants.
Mr. Raikes, with a personality less pleasing than that of Mr. Fawcett, was a man of great independence and force of character, and he depended less for his policy on the permanent staff than has been the case with most Postmasters-General. He was confronted with many difficulties arising out of the dissatisfaction of large numbers of the staff; but he faced all questions with courage and determination, and he too left his mark on the Department. It is a striking fact that Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Raikes, who were indefatigable workers, and who both went through times of great official anxiety, should have died in harness. I do not wish to imply that all Postmasters-General who survive their term of office are weak and indifferent chiefs; but these two instances show the enormous strain which is in modern times put upon a Minister who attempts seriously to grapple with the multifarious questions and anxieties of his Department. It must always be remembered, too, in considering what is expected of a Postmaster-General, that he usually comes to his duties without any experience of the technical work and routine of the Department, and if he takes his work very seriously he is perpetually being obliged to acquire knowledge at very short notice. He has not only to convince Parliament of the rightness of his policy; he has also to argue the matter out with the permanent officials, who know all the ropes, and can obstruct his schemes by their superior knowledge of the practical difficulties.
Mr. Chamberlain in speaking on one occasion, when Secretary of State for the Colonies, to a body of Civil Servants, said: “You are aware that the human race is divided into two great categories—those who are members of the Civil Service and those who are not. But even the Civil Service may be subdivided into those who are permanent and non-political and those who are political and temporary, who come like shadows and so depart. I have a shrewd suspicion that you could do without us. But I have an absolute conviction that we could not do without you.”
These words apply exactly to the relations of a Postmaster-General to his staff. And the staff would reply to such words that while they do the work whether their political chief is present or not, he has frequently the capacity to inspire them, and he has the public reputation which confers distinction on the Department. He can at least modify the dull rule of the permanent official.
Many distinguished men have held the position of Secretary of the Post Office. Of these no one was more indefatigable or rendered greater services to the Department than Sir Francis Freeling in the early years of the nineteenth century. To him was chiefly due the speeding up of the mail coach service. The acceptance of the position by Sir Rowland Hill gave a distinction to the office which it has never since lost. He was followed by Sir John Tilley, who was the last Secretary to be appointed from the staff of the Post Office. The men who have been appointed since his day have usually come from posts outside in which they have made a name. Sir Arthur Blackwood was Secretary for sixteen years, and he came from the Treasury. The Treasury always keeps a watchful eye on the Post Office, which is a revenue-earning Department, and the somewhat extravagant outlay on the purchase of the telegraphs was not at all pleasing to the Treasury. So Sir Arthur Blackwood, steeped in Treasury traditions, was sent to watch over the Post Office. He was known outside the Department as a religious enthusiast and an active philanthropist. He was a man of fine presence and great personal charm—he had been known in society in his youth as “Beauty Blackwood,” and though in matters of religion he gave the impression of being extremely rigid and unbending, he was as an official exceedingly wily and diplomatic. The late Sir Spencer Walpole, who succeeded him, had previously been Governor of the Isle of Man; he was a writer, and had published a History of England from 1815.