§ VISCOUNT CURZON (Bucks, Wycombe)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether there is any general order under which telegrams, not fully addressed, are not delivered when the officials have no reasonable doubt for whom they are intended; and whether the system of delivery of telegrams can be made the same as that of letters, in which case the delivery is made to the most likely person?
§ MR. RAIKESIn reply to my noble Friend I must, I fear, say that it is impracticable to make the system of delivering telegrams identical with that for delivering letters. The object of the Telegraphic Service is instant action, and it would not be possible, without serious injury to other persons making use of it, to detach messengers on voyages of discovery, which would necessarily very seriously retard the delivery of other telegrams. I hope that as a general practice the postmasters endeavour to meet the convenience of the public when they have no reasonable doubt respecting the addressee of a telegram. But I must own that I have observed with regret, in some particular cases which have been brought to my notice, a reluctance to interpret liberally the regulations of the Department, which I have never failed to visit with appropriate censure.