§ LORD CLAUD HAMILTONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, If it is true that Her Majesty's Government are now entertaining a tender of the Royal Mail Company for £95,500 per annum for the conveyance of the West India Mails; whether that sum is £15,000 in excess of the subsidy now paid; whether other tenders had been received under which the service would be performed with equal celerity at a saving of nearly £30,000 per annum; and, whether all the Correspondence connected with the tenders will be presented to the House before the contract becomes binding?
§ MR. EVELYN ASHLEYSir, the statements and figures in the noble Lord's Question are substantially correct; but as, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, all the tenders will be reconsidered by the Departments interested, the Correspondence cannot at present be laid on the Table.