§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that H.M.S. Thrush left England on 1st June for Gibraltar and Las Palmas, instructions being left that mails for the vessel should be sent on without delay to those places, and that although the Thrush stayed a fortnight at Gibraltar, reaching Las Palmas on or about 30th June, up to 1st July last the only mails addressed to the Thrush that had been delivered were those of the 6th and 7th of June; can he explain why the mail steamer reaching Las Palmas on 1st July brought no mails for the Thrush; and whether he will take measures to insure the punctual despatch of mails to Her Majesty's ships of war, according to the instructions given?
§ MR. RAIKESCorrespondence is despatched hence to Her Majesty's ships with the utmost regularity in accordance with addresses furnished by the Admiralty to the Post Office, and no fresh measures are required. I find that the Thrush left on the 1st of June; that the address furnished for her mails up to the 17th was Gibraltar, and after the 17th Bermuda; and that the mails were punctually despatched to those addresses. The steamer referred to by the hon. Member as reaching Las Palmas without mails for the Thrush would seem to have been that despatched from Liverpool on the 21st of June, when the mails were already being sent to Bermuda.