22 FEBRUARY 1946, Page 14

" NATIONALISED INDUSTRY "

SIR,—In his article on " Nationalised Industry," in your issue of February 8th, Geoffrey Cooper, M.P., says: " The Post Office leaves much to be desired in the standard of its service to the public. Its own employees, through the Union of Post Office Workers, are even at this moment voicing loudly their disapproval of the system by which the Post Office is run."

By quoting us in this context, Mr Cooper has, perhaps unintentionally, given the impression that we, as a Union, are parties to his criticism of the Post Office. This is not, in fact, the case. We are well aware of the deficiencies of the service, but we are also aware that those deficiencies are the result of the unstinting sacrifice of personnel and material made by the Post Office during the war years.

The shortage of manpower and equipment still persists. Telephone lines are still held by the fighting services, and no priority has been given for the return of Post Office staff from the Forces. It will be some time yet before the Post Office can reasonably be expected to get back to its pre-war efficiency. Knowing these things, we have no desire to be associated with criticism of the service from whatever quarter it may come.

What we wish to see changed is the administrative set-up. We believe that because of their long experience of Post Office matters through their participation in Whitleyism the workers ought to have a more responsible place in the administration of the Post Office, and to that end we are advocating the establishment of a joint council on which the staff, through their trade union representatives, would have equal executive status with the official side. In this connection we wholeheartedly endorse Mr. Cooper's plea for the spreading of responsibility and the establishment of economic as well as political democracy.—Yours faithfully, C. J. GEDDES, General Secretary, Union of Post Office Workers. U.P.W. House, Crescent Lane, Clapham Common, S.W. 4.