Chapter XIII

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS SELECT COMMITTEE ON POST OFFICE SERVANTS,
1906 226

The Post Office Civil Servants' Unions demand the adoption
of the Bradford Committee Report. Lord Stanley, Postmaster
General, applies the words "blackmail" and "blood-sucking"
to the postal employees' methods. Captain Norton moves for a
House of Commons Select Committee. Mr. Austen Chamberlain,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in vain asks the Opposition
Party's support for a Select Committee to which shall be
referred the question of the feasibility of establishing a
permanent, non-political Commission which shall establish
general principles for settling disputes between the civil
servants and the Government of the day. Captain Norton's
Motion is lost, nine Ministerial supporters voting for it, and
only two Opposition members voting against it. Mr. J. Henniker
Heaton's appeal to the British public for "An End to Political
Patronage." The Post Office employees, in the campaign
preceding the General Election of January, 1906, induce nearly
450 of the 670 parliamentary candidates who succeeded in being
elected, to pledge themselves to vote for a House of Commons
Select Committee on Post Office Wages. Immediately upon the
opening of Parliament, the Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman Liberal
Ministry gives the Post Office employees a House of Commons
Select Committee.