In April, 1900, Mr. Steadman said: “I honestly admit that this question business might be overdone; but at the same time, if anyone, postman or anyone else, thinks I can do his case any good by putting down a question, I shall always do so as long as I am a Member of this House.” Mr. Steadman proved as good as his boast; and in July, 1900, he intervened on behalf of a man from whom the Post Office Department had withheld two good conduct stripes “because he had absented himself frequently on insufficient plea of illness.” Mr. Steadman stood ready to shield any malingerer who might apply to him, though malingering is a serious evil in the Post Office service. For example, in 1901 the average number of days’ absence on sick-leave was 7.6 days for the men in that part of the staff that receives full pay during sick-leave, as against 5.2 days for the men in that part of the staff that receives only half-pay during sick-leave.[352] Mr. Steadman had been elected to Parliament by a majority of 20 votes. He is at present a Member of the London County Council.[353]
In June, 1906, Mr. Sydney Buxton, who had become Postmaster General, upon the formation of the Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman Ministry, in December, 1905, expressed himself as follows:[354] “He was informed a little while ago by his private secretary that in the ordinary way 60 or 70 applications of various sorts were made by honorable Members in the course of a calendar month, but that for some months past, in consequence perhaps of there being a new Government, a new Parliament, new Members, and a new Postmaster General, the number of applications of all sorts had amounted to between 300 and 400 per month.”
A Member of the Select Committee on Post Office Servants, 1906
In May, 1906, Mr. J. Ward, a Member of the Select Committee on Post Office Servants, 1906, asked the Postmaster General “whether his attention had been called to the dismissal of E. C. Feasey, of Walsall, who had been an efficient officer in the postal service for 17 years … and whether he will reconsider the question of the man’s reinstatement?” Mr. Buxton replied: “I have looked into the circumstances connected with the dismissal by my predecessor of E. C. Feasey, formerly a town postman at Walsall. I find that Feasey had a most unsatisfactory record…. I am not prepared to consider the question of reinstatement.”[355]
In March, 1906, the Postmaster General, in reply to Mr. Nannetti, M. P., said: “The Reports and statements in the Corcoran case were fully considered at the time [1901], and I can see no good purpose in reopening the matter after a lapse of five years.”[356]
In April, 1906, Mr. Wiles,[357] M. P., intervened on behalf of the head messenger in the Secretary’s Office at the General Post Office, London. Under the administration of Lord Stanley, Postmaster General, an allowance of 4 shillings a week given the head messenger at the time of his appointment, had been withheld from October, 1900, to October, 1905. Mr. Sydney Buxton replied: “I have already had this case under my consideration. The allowance of 4 shillings a week is being granted, but unfortunately the allowance cannot be made retrospective.”
Mr. Wiles had been elected to Parliament in January, 1906, having defeated Sir Albert K. Rollit, who, for many years, had made a specialty of championing the cause of Post Office employees who had a grievance.
Deplorable Waste of Executive Ability