MAY BANK CLERKS MARRY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3818, 7 October 1936, Page 6

MAY BANK CLERKS MARRY

BRITISH SYSTEM INDICTED. The following indictment of the attitude of some British banks to the “right to marry” as claimed by their clerks is published in the last issue of “The New Statesman,” to hand by the English mail:—“A clerk in one of the leading Scottish banks, having reached the age of 29, wished to marry. But a bank clerk may not marry, so it appears, without the consent and benediction of his employers. To them he accordingly made his prayer. They replied that his salary was but £l6O a year and it was written in the bank’s commandments that no man might marry under £2OO. He thereupon made application that they should raise his salary to the requisite £2OO, pointing out that he had done nine years’ faithful service. They replied with, a promotion to £lBO, a transfer, and an injunction that he should on no account marry, but that after a further six months they would see whether (a) further increase could be accorded to bring his pay to the mystic minimum, (b) he had settled down in the new office and district, and (c) he was able to obtain a suitable house there, for “we should not approve of your settling in furnished rooms.” To this edict was appended a footnote adjuring the young man to “grasp all opportunities of adding to your knowledge generally.” No one can ever tell for certain what last flick or sting it is that makes the mildest of men go red in the nqck. In this case possibly the footnote. The clerk replied that he had promise of a suitable house, that his father (a,; previously notified) would make up his salary to £209, that he was performing his duties •with all care, that he, was going to be married next Monday, and that he hoped the bank would absolve him. and retain him in its service. Four days later (a Thursday) he was exI communicated; “Your services with the bank will terminate at the close of business on Saturday, to which date your salary will be paid.” And I as it was written, so it came to pass; and now, of course, no other’ bank | in the length and breadth of this i land of hope and glory, mother of , the free, will touch him with a barge pole, and even less ecclesiastical employers, on hearing that he was dismissed by a bank (‘By a bank, young man. Ah!’) look down their noses and cough. Well, I suppose he should have known what he was letting himself in for when he dedicated his life to the mystery and joine'd its priesthood. The reader will have noticed, I hope, that, in the foot note to the edict, ‘Bank’ is written with a capital B.”