NATURE 



40J 



SATURLAi, APRIL I, 1922. 



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» Science at the Post Office. 



A FFAIRS relating to the technical services under 

 * l\. the Post Office have in the past few years been 

 greatly in prominence ; indeed^, this has been the case 

 since a Select Committee of the House of Commons 

 began in 191 2 to investigate the original contract in 

 connection with the Post Office scheme for an Imperial 

 Wireless Chain. The manner and method adopted by 

 the Post Office in handling this scheme have in many 

 ways proved most unfortunate for the State. 



More recently, the serious and widespread complaints 

 of the public concerning the quality of the Post Office 

 telephone service led, in the early part of last year, to 

 the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire 

 generally into the situation ; the Committee met forth- 

 with and took much evidence from the officials of the 

 Department and also from witnesses representing 

 \arious public bodies. This evidence was reported to 

 the House of Commons in June last (Report from the 

 Select Committee on the Telephone Service. H.C. 191 

 of Session 192 1) : within the past few days the Com- 

 mittee has submitted its recommendations to Parlia- 

 ment, wherein a radical reorganisation of the Post Office 

 is proposed (Report from the Select Committee on the 

 Telephone Service, 1922 [No. 54]). 



Since the Select Committee (of 1921) was appointed, 

 particularly by reason of the allegations made by 

 telephone users regarding the inefficiency of the service 

 provided for them — a matter obviously closely con- 

 nected with the question of the technical qualifications 

 of the engineering staff employed thereon— it follows 

 that those portions of the evidence given before the 

 Select Committee, which deal with the methods 

 adopted by the Post Office in recruiting its staff, are of 

 considerable importance from the point of view of the 

 NO. 2735, VOL. 109] 



reforms which should be taken in hand. Among the 

 witnesses appearing before the Committee who dealt 

 with this subject were the present engineer-in-chief and 

 a former engineer-in-chief to the Post Office. The 

 present engineer-in-chief in his evidence indicated the 

 policy the Department is now adopting in the matter 

 of recruiting its engineers, whilst the former engineer- 

 in-chief, who gave evidence on behalf of the London 

 Chamber of Commerce, contrasted the standard in the 

 qualifications accepted by the Post Office from its 

 engineers with that demanded in similar circumstances 

 by the telegraph and telephone authorities in America 

 and in Europe : the comparison tells greatly to the 

 disadvantage of the authorities at St. Martin's-le- 

 Grand, It was pointed out by the latter witness that 

 whereas, from early times, telegraph and telephone 

 administrations in foreign countries have exercised 

 great care in appointing to the engineering grades 

 leading to the superior positions in the technical branch 

 of their undertakings candidates who have a high 

 standard of technical qualifications, on the other hand, 

 in the British Post Office, subordinate officials, who were 

 not properly qualified, have, in many cases, been 

 promoted into responsible positions. 



The condition of affairs in relation to the engineering 

 staff of the Post Office, to which allusion was made by 

 the former engineer-in-chief in his evidence, was in no 

 way in the nature of the giving away of official secrets : 

 the unsatisfactory state of affairs prevailing on the 

 staff side of the engineering department of the Post 

 Office has already been brought to public notice by 

 the Select Committee appointed in April 19 12, to 

 inquire into the wages and employment of Post Office 

 Servants. This Committee, in dealing with the 

 Engineering Department, reported : 



" That it is proposed to recruit the class of Assistant 

 Engineers by competitive examination, one half of the 

 vacancies being offered to Post Office Servants up to 

 the age of 40 in the case of those who have engineering 

 experience, including junior engineers, and 32 in the 

 case of those who have not, and the other half to outside 

 candidates of not more than 24 years of age who have 

 had two years' training in a technical college or in 

 works. . . . 



" That the work has become more technical, more 

 complicated and more difficult, and that the age limit 

 of 32 ought rather to be lowered than abolished. 



" That there is no justification for reserving a pro- 

 portion of the vacancies in the Assistant Engineers' 

 Class for clerks in the Engineer-in-Chief's Office. 



" That it is undesirable to limit the field of recruit- 

 ment for the class of Assistant Engineers XS those 

 within the Department, and that it is important that 

 50 per cent, of the vacancies should be filled by young 

 men of wider education and higher engineering attain- 

 ments than are usual among Post Office Servants." 

 (Report from the Select Committee on Post Office 



