MR. ERASER-MACKINTOSH (Inverness-shire)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether, by receiving prepayment, the Post Office is held to undertake the safe delivery of letters, packets, and parcels from India; whether there are, nevertheless, numerous complaints made of the tampering with letters, packets, and parcels in transit, and of their contents being removed or injured; and whether these robberies, chiefly affecting private soldiers in India and their friends in the United Kingdom, can be stopped?
§ *THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. RAIKES,) Cambridge UniversityIn reply to the hon. Member, I have to say that, in the case of all letters, whether paid or unpaid, the Post Office does all in its power to deliver them safely. During the year ended the 31st of March last, the number of parcels received from India was 47,671, and of these the number alleged to be tampered with was four. There is good reason to believe, however, that in two of these four cases the tampering, if tampering there was, did not take place in the Post Office. Out of the 47,671 parcels the number alleged to have been damaged was 55. In many of these cases the contents wore very fragile, such as butterflies, clay figures, and soap-stone models, or were not securely packed. As regards letters, we have no exact information of the number received from India during the same period, but the hon. Member will understand that they were very much more numerous than the parcels. Out of the total number, whatever it was, the number alleged to have been tampered with was nine; and in two out of these nine 1757 cases the articles abstracted were eventually recovered. Whether the losses chiefly affected private soldiers or not I am unable to say; but, be that as it may, the hon. Member will, I think, agree with me that it is not a bad record, and that there is not very much to correct.