§ MR. JOHN LOCKEsaid, he would beg in the absence of the hon. Member for Brighton (Mr. Coningham) to ask the hon. Gentleman the Secretary to the Treasury in what manner, if not officially, the Amalgamation of the West Indian and Australian Mail Companies has come before him; also, whether the Chairman of the West Indian Mail Company has not obtained the consent of its shareholders to an amalgamation with the Australian Mail Company, under a more or less positive assurance that the existing Government contracts would be further extended without competition for two years; and whether this is to be considered as a Government guarantee for the sum of £910,000 2071 out of the public purse for services to be performed in the years 1862 and 1863.
MR. WILSONsaid, in reply to the first question of the hon. Gentleman, he might be allowed to state that the only communication which he had had with the parties referred to was a personal communication from the Chairman of the two Companies, in which was intimated their desire to carry a certain proposal into effect. And the reply which he (Mr. Wilson) made to that communication—as stated by him on a former occasion—was that if the Companies laid their proposal before the Admiralty in due form, it would next come under the notice of the Treasury, and that, when it did, it should receive every consideration which so important a question deserved. Since, however, he had made that answer, the Treasury had received the proposal of the Companies through the Admiralty; in fact, it was lying there at that moment, but he had not as yet had time to consider its merits. At the same time, let him assure the House that whatever might be done in the matter would be out of regard for the public interests, and not with any regard to the special interests of the Companies concerned. As to what might have taken place with respect to the West Indian Mail Company he was quite uninformed. With regard to the last question of the hon. Gentleman—namely, whether the sum to be paid by the Government during two years amounted to a guarantee of £910,000 to the Companies, while he could not state the exact sum that would have to be paid by the Government, yet, undoubtedly, if the contract were accepted as proposed, whatever its amount was, it would be equal to an undertaking on the part of the Government to pay that sum of money, under certain conditions, for postal services to be performed by the Companies.