§ MR. SETON-KARR (St. Helen's)asked the Secretary to the Treasury, Whether his attention has been called to the fact that the Committee of the New University Club (St. James's Street, S.W.), recently registered an abbreviated telegraphic address, "Oxbridge," for which they paid the usual fee; that, subsequent to the said payment, they were verbally informed that it would be necessary to add the words "care of," in order to complete the address, involving an additional payment for each telegram sent, thus practically rendering useless the above abbreviated address; that numerous telegrams, addressed to members of the Club under above address, have not reached their destination; whether a member of the aforesaid Club does not come under the definition of "person" in the Post Office Rules, for whom the aforesaid abbreviated address "Oxbridge" would be sufficient; and, whether the Post Office authorities can adopt some means to prevent the payment of fees for valueless and inoperative abbreviated telegraphic addresses?
§ THE SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. HENRY H. FOWLER) (Wolverhampton, E.)My attention has been called to the fact that the Committee of the New University Club have registered the word "Oxbridge" as the abbreviated telegraphic address of the Club, and that subsequent to the registration they were informed that the words "care of," or the symbol c-o, would be necessary for messages addressed to members at the Club; but I cannot admit that this addition renders useless the registration of the abbreviated address. I am not aware that numerous telegrams have not reached their destination. It is absolutely necessary, when any addition is made to the word registered with the Post Office, as in the case of a message addressed to a member of a Club, that the name should be divided from the registered address of the Club, which can be done by the addition of the symbols c-o, the payment for this being a half-penny. As the Club fee appears to have been paid under misapprehension, the Postmaster General will repay the amount.