POSTMEN'S COMFORT.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 13 August 1932, Page 4

POSTMEN'S COMFORT.

PROHIBITION UPON OPENNECK SHIRTS.

Sir Kingsley Wood, the British Postmaster-General, has refused a request from the Union of Post Office Workers that postmen should be allowed in hot weather to wear opennecked shirts. He considers that the proposed relaxation is neither suitable nor necessary, and the official letter adds: "The Postmaßtei'-Gcneral considers that to dispense with a tie and to leave unfastened the top button or stud of the shirt would be definitely incongruous and altogether out of keeping with tho general appearance of the uniform, even when a shirt such as you advocate was newly put on, and that the incongruity and untidy effect would rapidly increase with the wearing of the shirt.

"Smartness of appearance, which is generally associated in the public mind with efficiency, would, in the Post-master-General's opinion, be endangered." . The view of the Union of Post Office Workers is that the country postman carrying a heavy bag along miles of hot roads would be just as good a servant of the public nnd just as much respected by them if he had a collar open at the neck.