MR. MAC IVERasked the Postmaster General, Whether the mails to be conveyed to and from Peru, and ports on the South Pacific, under the proposed contract with the Royal Mail Company, will at times be detained as much as five and six days at the Isthmus of Panama, in consequence of the contract not providing for a close connection between the steamers sailing between Southampton and Colon, and those conveying the Mails on the Pacific Ocean; and, if he intends to make any arrangement to obviate this serious inconvenience?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSBoth under the contract now in force and under that recently concluded, mails for the Pacific, despatched fortnightly to the Isthmus of Panama by the West India mail packets, will be due at Colon on certain fixed days of each month. From Panama the mails for ports on the South Pacific are carried by a line of packets, which sail on fixed days of each week. Occasionally, therefore, the mails may be detained on the Isthmus, and to the extent of five or six days. No contract exists for the conveyance from Peru, or other States of the South Pacific, of mails for the United Kingdom. All such mails brought to Panama are despatched from Colon twice a month, on fixed days of the month, by the British (West India) mail packets; and when they arrive after the departure of a British packet, but in time to be forwarded by a French packet, or by a United States packet viâ. New York, they are so forwarded. An arrangement is now under consideration which, it is suggested, would obviate the possible inconvenience.