§ MR. DALRYMPLEasked the Postmaster General, If his attention has been specially called to the inconvenience and loss caused to persons engaged in the China trade by an arrangement contained in the new Postal Contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, by which a stoppage on the homeward voyage of forty-eight hours at Hong Kong has been assented to, when no mail necessity can be pleaded in justification (as twenty-four hours are sufficient on the outward voyage), in order that the steamer carrying the mails may load homeward cargo?
§ LORD JOHN MANNERS, in reply, said, the duration of the stoppage at Hong Kong of the homeward packet from Shanghai, under the new Contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, was the same as at present—namely, 48 hours, and it was understood that this interval was of advantage to the China merchants, most of whom had branch houses or agencies at Hong Kong. This stay of 48 hours at Hong Kong was a stipulation of the Peninsular and Oriental Company in their tender, and formed part of it.