§ MR. MONTAGU SCOTTasked the Postmaster General, Whether, having regard to the correspondence which has appeared in the public press as to the contents of a telegram addressed to Mr. T. Wright, the aeronaut, by Colonel Fred Burnaby, having been divulged by an official of the Submarine Telegraph Company to the President of the Balloon Society, if such a course of proceeding is one which meets the approval 546 of the Postmaster General; and, if not, whether any steps will be taken by the Postmaster General's department, with a view of preventing the contents of private messages being divulged to others not being the persons to whom they were originally addressed; and, whether the Submarine Telegraph Company, which receives and delivers telegrams in London, and has specific powers conferred upon it by the Government, and is worked in connection with the Postal Telegraph system, can be compelled to respect messages sent over its wires?
§ MR. FAWCETTSir, as far as my individual opinion is concerned, I certainly think that the contents of the telegram to which the hon. Member refers ought not to have been divulged; but the Post Office has no power in the matter, because the Telegraph Acts of 1863 and 1868, which secure the secrecy of inland telegrams, do not inforce secrecy on foreign telegrams transmitted by the Submarine and other foreign telegraph companies.