As one result of the co-operation of the London Trades Council, a deputation from that body waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir William Harcourt, to discuss the rights of civil servants. W. E. Clery, who had now become a postal representative on the London Trades Council, was one of the deputation, and stoutly contested several important points with Sir William Harcourt. But beyond the publicity given by the press, little was gained from the deputation. Sir William promised to consider the points raised and give a reply, but never did so.
Among the Parliamentary friends who had rendered themselves prominent in the furtherance of the demand for inquiry were Sir Albert Rollit and Mr. Keir Hardie, and their services were recognised in illuminated addresses presented at an annual dinner of the Fawcett Association, January 10, 1895. But there was also another supporter in the House, Mr. Sam Woods, who was to render a signal service, and effectually carry through what Mr. Murray Macdonald had been only partly successful in doing.
On February 8, 1895, Mr. Sam Woods, true to his promise, but contrary to the expectation of many, withstanding every insidious influence and all overtures from behind the Speaker’s chair, pushed forward his amendment to the Address. He had been requested to carry this to a division by the Fawcett Association, and in spite of the strength of the Government opposition actually lost only by eight. By the narrow majority of eight the Government was saved, and from a postal point of view it was something of an achievement. In whatever other light it might be regarded, it was distinctly a moral victory for postal politics. The Liberal press were naturally very wrath at pushing the joke so far, while for the same reason the Tory journals were jubilant. The postal movement was given credit by members of the Government for a desire to wreck the Liberal administration, and the leaders of postal agitation were not slow to accept the soft impeachment.
At this time the fellow-feeling and community of interests prevailing between them induced the postmen and the sorters to once more try the experiment of federation. The telegraphists were not included, but the tracers, a small body of tracers of telegrams, attached to the telegraph side of the service, were embraced, and the new Postal Service Federation was formed, February 26, 1895. Simultaneously with this event came one which was to prove of far greater importance and significance, the publication of a remarkable letter from the Postmaster-General to the Eleusis Club, affirming the right of combination among postal servants. The Eleusis Club, Chelsea, had passed a resolution calling on the Government to recognise postal employés and all servants in its employ as citizens, with the right to combine to protect and further their interests without any dread of departmental rules and regulations to the contrary; and further it was deemed the duty of the Government to reinstate those who had suffered in performing their citizen duties.
The reply of the Postmaster-General through his Assistant-Secretary was calculated to affirm and emphasise the right recently accorded by Mr. Gladstone, but better still, it removed any suspicions that the Liberal Postmaster-General was only waiting to swoop down like the wolf on the fold to destroy their various combinations. As this, in conjunction with the Gladstone proclamation, was regarded as a valuable pronouncement on liberty in the Post-Office, it is necessary here to reproduce it. The following is the reply:—
“General Post-Office, London,
February 14, 1895.
“Sir,—I am directed by the Postmaster-General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th inst., and to inform you, in reply, that the political committee of the Eleusis Club appears to be under a misapprehension in believing that the rights of combination or citizenship are denied to Post-Office servants. On the contrary, I am to state there are no official regulations restricting the right of Post-Office servants to combine or to meet, when not on duty, when and where they like. In the same way, with certain exceptions not material to the present purpose—such as the situation of process-server, rate-collector, and such like—they are not precluded from serving in any office the duties of which do not interfere with their official duties, or from taking part in politics. As regards the latter part of the resolution, expressing the opinion of the Eleusis Club that it is the ‘duty of the Government to reinstate those who have suffered in performing their citizen duties,’ I am to state that Mr. Morley is not aware who those persons are.—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
(Signed) “H. Joyce.”
Forgiving the pretended ignorance of the recent notorious dismissals, to say the least it was reassuring, and was the more unexpected from Mr. Arnold Morley, who had all along been credited with a ravenous desire to swallow up everything in the shape of trades’ unionism in the Post-Office. It is possible that had the concession been offered by Mr. Raikes, it would have been offered by him in such a manner as would have won him simultaneous and unanimous applause. Mr. Raikes would have offered it with a genial smile, as if it gave him unbounded pleasure to render this little service, but somehow coming from Mr. Arnold Morley’s hand it was accepted differently; it was offered without the smile, and with a cold and impassive air that indicated official boredom kept in check only by mechanical good breeding. The Postmaster-General was too indifferent or too indolent to make a good actor, so they merely accepted this new concession to principle as a something thrown to them by an unsympathetic hand. But no matter how they came by it, or whatever it came wrapped in, it was thought none the less a gem, and they came to prize it accordingly.