6io 



NATURE 



[May 13, 1922 



telephony. The senior ranks of the department — 

 Assistant Engineer-in-Chief, Staff Engineers, and 

 Superintending Engineers — contain many men much 

 more fully qualified for the premier position by 

 capacity, general and scientific education, and special 

 engineering and administrative experience than any 

 outside engineer could possibly be, and the Post- 

 master-General is to be congratulated upon the field 

 of choice at his command. This is well known to 

 the whole staff, and I need say nothing of the effect 

 upon its moral and esprit de corps which would 

 follow the adoption of the principle recommended in 

 your article. 



I am afraid I have already over-trespassed upon your 

 valuable space, otherwise I could give much informa- 

 tion as to the brilliant scientific work performed by 

 Post Office engineers. Many of their productions 

 are classics in the field of telegraph and telephone 

 engineering and research. 



The Post Office service is a " silent service," except 

 when gratuitous and undeserved attack stings it 

 into retort. I can without hesitation challenge any 

 critic to produce experts in any branches of telegraph 

 or telephone service who would not be at least equalled 

 by Post Ofiice officials whom I could name. 



W. Noble, 

 Engineer-in-Chief. 



General Post Office (West), London, E.C.i, 

 April 19. 



Sir William Noble places a construction upon 

 the words used in our article which they cannot 

 reasonably bear. The purpose was to direct attention 

 to the Report from the Select Committee on the 

 Telephone Service (1922), a document very generally 

 admitted to be one of the most important and valu- 

 able of parliamentary papers issued in recent years ; 

 and we believe the article to which Sir William Noble 

 refers to be a fair comment on a matter of great public 

 interest. The Committee definitely says in this 

 Report : " We cannot agree with the trend of Post 

 Office evidence that from a telephone point of view 

 the existing organisation works perfectly well, how- 

 ever cleverly managed it may be," and therefore 

 substantially finds that there was good foundation 

 for the complaints concerning the inefficiency of the 

 Post Ofiice telephone service : the Committee, in 

 consequence, recommends a " thorough reform " (our 

 italics) in the Post Ofiice organisation. The minutes 

 of the evidence taken by the Committee are contained 

 in a public document (H.C. 191 of Session 192 1), and 

 therefore the names of the witnesses and particulars 

 concerning them can be readily ascertained by those 

 who so desire. Now, it is true that evidence was 

 given by witnesses representing newspaper organisa- 

 tions, namely, the Press Association and the News- 

 paper Society ; on the other hand, apart from the 

 Post Office officials, the great majority of the other 

 witnesses who came before the Select Committee 

 attended in order to represent important organisations 

 of various kinds, some fourteen in all, such as Chambers 

 of Commerce, Agricultural Associations, and two 

 Municipal Corporations. The general trend of the 

 evidence of the latter witnesses amounted to a 

 criticism of the quality of the telephone service, and 

 although a great volume of the fault-finding was 

 directed against the administrative system of the 

 Post Office, many of the adverse comments made by 

 the witnesses referred to work of a technical kind. 



The volume in which the evidence in question is 

 to be found was indicated in our article, and all who 

 so desire can therefore consult the actual statements 

 of witnesses as put on record therein, and can at the 

 same time naturally draw their own conclusions in 

 relation to the matters under investigation. We take, 



NO. 2741, VOL. 109] 



and have long taken, a deep interest in the utilisation of 

 science in the public departments, and many sources 

 of information on this matter are open to us ; in 

 consequence, we have considerable personal know- 

 ledge of the conditions prevailing in the technical 

 branches of the various government departments, 

 including the Post Office. 



To deal with the first of Sir William Noble's con- 

 tentions. We do not deny that during the period of 

 the war the Post Office services had had to be carried 

 on under exceptional difficulties. We also had in- 

 formation some time ago from American sources 

 showing that the telephone service in America had 

 deteriorated during the war period after the U.S.A. 

 Government established its control upon the telephone 

 undertakings ; afterwards we learnt from American 

 business men that the telephone service in their 

 country began at once to improve as soon as the 

 government control was removed, and was quickly 

 brought again to a high level of efficiency. We fail, 

 to see, however, the connection with the war situation 

 alluded to by Sir William Noble in his letter, and the 

 fact to which attention was directed in our article, 

 namely, that foreign telegraph and telephone adminis- 

 trations have for a long time past demanded a higher 

 standard of technical qualifications from applicants 

 for positions in their engineering departments than 

 has the Post Office. 



As regards the second of Sir William Noble's con- 

 tentions, we cannot understand how he arrives at the 

 conclusion that the language employed in the reference 

 in our article to the Post Office recruiting scheme of 

 1907 contains an implication that " standards of 

 qualification, set up by a former engineer-in-chief, are 

 now being reduced." The purport of our remarks 

 on the subject is to the effect that we disapprove of 

 a policy the consequence of which will be to reduce 

 the percentage of engineers entering the Post Office 

 by open competition below that represented by Post 

 Office officials to the Select Committee of 19 12 — an 

 extract from the Report of which is given in the 

 article — as being then necessary. Our contention is 

 that, responsible Post Office officials having stated 

 publicly ten years ago, for the reasons given in the ex- 

 tract quoted, that it was " undesirable to limit the 

 field of recruitment for the class of assistant engineers 

 to those within the Department," and also that it was 

 " important that 50 per cent, of the vacancies should 

 be filled by young men of wider education and higher 

 engineering attainments than are usual amongst Post 

 Office servants," it cannot be right, and in the 

 interests of the public service, now to reduce the 

 percentage of engineers to be recruited by open 

 competition to 20 per cent, only, as would appear to 

 be the policy of the Post Office at the present time. 



Within the limits of space at our disposal we are 

 unable to go into details in connection with the 

 method proposed for recruiting the subordinate 

 grades of the Post Office engineering department : 

 we were, of course, fully aware of the scheme outlined 

 by Sir WiUiam Noble in his evidence before the Select 

 Committee (Q. 2227) ; an opportunity may occur 

 for dealing with the subject at a later date. However, 

 it may be said at once that we fully recognise, and are 

 in entire agreement with the view, that an avenue of 

 promotion to the highest rank in the Post Office 

 should be open to every properly and sufficiently 

 qualified individual, irrespective of when or where he 

 reaches the standard of qualifications essential to 

 enable him skilfully to discharge the higher duties, 

 and irrespective also of the grade in which he first 

 entered the public service. But on account of the 

 facilities, such as County Scholarships and otherwise, 

 which are now open to every young man of ability, 

 regardless of the means of his parents, for obtaining 



