[178] Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, July 16, 1897, p. 323 and following.
[179] Compare also Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, April 9, 1896, p. 597, Mr. R. W. Hanbury: “He had sat for some years as a member of the Royal Commission upon Civil Service Establishments, and the Members of that Commission had been greatly struck by the enormous pressure that civil servants in particular constituencies were able to bring to bear upon candidates, and in his view the House ought not to adopt any line of action that would encourage that pressure being brought into operation. So great, indeed, had been the abuses that it had even been suggested that civil servants ought to be disfranchised altogether…. Another great danger that had to be provided against was that in certain London constituencies, and in some of the large towns, it was quite possible that the civil servants might, by combining together, succeed in turning the balance at an election in the event of one of the candidates refusing to pledge himself with regard to raising the scale of wage, or an increase in the amount of pensions, or similar advantages which the civil servants might desire to obtain.”
[180] Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, April 27, 1900, p. 135; April 25, 1901, p. 1,325; and April 30, 1903, p. 1,022.
[181] Report of the Postmaster General, 1906.
CHAPTER XI
The Post Office Employees Continue to Press the House of Commons for Increases of Wages and Salaries
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 unfortunate members of 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.”
Civil Servants demand Right to agitate