MR. H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER (Belfast, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, in view of the fact that thousands of parcels containing liquids, greases, etc., are daily carried through the sample post and delivered to addressees in the United Kingdom, he can in any way modify the statement recently made by him to the effect that the transmission of such packages as samples is impossible; and whether he is aware that, despite the statement recently made by the Post Office that no satisfactory method of transmitting such articles through the letter post has been or can be devised, many hundreds of thousands of such packages are dispatched by the post offices of every country in Europe in accordance with the postal regulations of such countries, and that British manufacturers desiring to send liquid samples by sample post to British Colonies are compelled to forward them to the Continent for dispatch?
* MR. HANBURYI do not know to what statement the hon. Member refers. It was impossible, I said, that substances which it was necessary to pack in airtight canisters should be sent by sample post, but it does not follow that those named by the hon. Member must all be thus named. The Postmaster General is not aware of the number of packages containing liquids and grease which are sent through the post on the Continent of Europe, nor is he aware of the means adopted by British manufacturers for sending liquid samples to British Colonies. The whole question of the transmission of such articles by post, however, is one which the Postmaster General proposes to consider in connection with several other questions of a like nature.