Mr. R. W. Hanbury, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, replied that no new facts had been brought to light since the Tweedmouth Committee and the Norfolk-Hanbury Committee had made concessions entailing an annual expenditure of $1,900,000 a year. The Post Office servants were demanding "a new judgment on the old facts." He continued: "I confess, I am not quite sure that we did not go too far [in 1897], because by increasing these salaries we are bringing into this service an entirely new social class; you are bringing in men who perhaps are socially a little above their work, and these men naturally have a standard of living and requirements which are not essential to men doing this kind of work. If we are going to raise the salaries more and more, you will get a higher social class into the service, and there will be no limit to the demands made upon us." Mr. Hanbury continued: "You have got to trust the heads of the Departments, or get new heads; it is quite impossible for the House of Commons to go into all these technicalities, and I know no Department where the work is more technical and more complicated than the Post Office. The Treasury work is supposed to be hard to learn [by the Members of the House of Commons working for promotion to the Ministry], but the technicalities of the Post Office is about the most difficult job I ever had, and I do not think a Select Committee would be really able to get to the bottom of this matter. But, after all, we must recollect another fact, and it is this: that the Civil Service is a great deal too much inclined to attempt to put pressure upon Members of Parliament. That is a very bad system, upon which we ought to put our foot. It is bad enough when it is brought to bear upon the House as a whole, but what would happen with a Select Committee of this House? You would have the resentment of the Civil Service focussed and concentrated upon the unfortunate Members of the Committee, and I do not think it would act more independently or more impartially than those two bodies which have sat already." Mr. Steadman's Motion was lost by a vote of 159 to 91. Eighty-six members of the Opposition and two Government supporters voted for the Motion.[188] * * * * * [Sidenote: _Civil Servants have "Friends" in the Commons_]