P. AND T. DISMISSALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1079, 17 September 1930, Page 10

P. AND T. DISMISSALS

ACTION SUPPORTED IN WELLINGTON IMPORTANCE OF SECRECY . Press Association WELLINGTON, Tuesday Maintaining that it was absolutel, essential that secrecy should observed in the post office, the <hai r man of the Wellington Chamber 0 f Commerce, Mr. D. J. McGowan, to. night expressed the opinion that the action of the department in dismiss ing six officers of the Auckland Tel, graph Office for divulging in regard to telegrams deserved the commendation of the business coin, munitv. A resolution was passed protesting against the reinstatement of any officer who had been found guilty of such offence. Mr. McGowan said that since the last meeting of the council of the chamber he had read in the newspapers that the Parliamentary Com mittee had recommended that the men be taken on again for the reason that the punishment of dismissal was too harsh. As the matter of divuling information in the post office waa most serious one, he had made it his business to ascertain the facts' The men concerned were suspected of divulging information in regard u racing telegrams. They were tried before a magistrate in Auckland and found guilty. They were then di«missed from the service. They were heard before an appeal board, con sisting of the magistrate, Mr. E. C Cutten, as chairman, and two depart mental officers, one appointed by the department and one member elected by the votes of those employed in the department. PETITIONED PARLIAMENT The appeal was dismissed, the speaker said, three members of the appeal board, including the men’s representative, concurring in the decision The men then petitioned Parliamenand he understood that the same evidence wars given before the Parliimentary Committee. Mr. McGowan said he had looked np the Statutes on the question and found that in the Post and Telegraph Act it was provided that officers who divulged information in regard to telegrams were liable to a fine not exceeding £3 00, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months. In view of that it could not be said that the punishment was harsh. Postal officers, he understood, took an oath of secrecy when they were employed and it was absolutely essential tin: this oath should be kept inviolate. “This,” concluded Mr. McGowan, “is essentially a matter for the business men to consider.” They should, he added, by every means in their power support the department, in its endeavour to uphold the fine traditions that had existed in the Post Office. The fact that the telegrams were racing telegrams had no bearing on the question. They might as well hare been business telegrams.