§ MR. J. WILSON (on behalf of Mr GOURLEY)I wish to ask the Postmaster General if he is aware that the Representative of Lloyd's has proposed to the International Telegraphic Conference, now sitting at Paris, that the Continental States should reduce their samaphore signalling fee to one franc, and that Lloyd's would, in return, reduce their fee to foreign ships to one shilling, or, if necessary, to one franc; and whether he will instruct the Post Office Delegate, now at Paris, to support the proposition of Lloyd's?
§ SIR H. MAXWELL (on behalf of the POSTMASTER GENERAL)I have to say that the right hon. Gentleman stated on the 6th inst., in reply to a question put by the hon. Member for Dundee, that the British Delegates would be very glad to use their best offices to secure any reduction which the Foreign Governments might see their way to make in the present signalling fee. It may be added that on the representation of the British Delegates the International Telegraphic Conference has agreed to admit a Representative of Lloyd's when the Committee's proposals are under discussion, and that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has arranged for Sir 516 Joseph Crowe, Commercial Attaché for Europe at the Paris Embassy, to lend him his assistance.