§ MR. R. CHAMBERLAIN (Islington, W.)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether his attention has been called to the fact that the public have suffered loss from the circulation of genuine postal order forms (said to have been stolen from a post office), but with forged postmaster's signature and date stamp of issuing office; whether, in this case, any compensation will be made to the innocent holders of these orders, who have given value for them; and whether any measures will be taken to prevent the perpetration of similar frauds in future?
§ * THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Sir J. FERGUSSON, Manchester, N E.)A small number of blank postal order forms were stolen from a post office in London in January last and by forgery of the kind described in the question were made to appear as if they were complete postal orders. Taking advantage of the readiness with which postal orders are accepted as currency, even where the regulations prescribed by Parliament have not been complied with, the thieves passed them off on tradesmen and others. Steps meanwhile had been taken to put all paying offices on their guard and in several cases where the forged orders were presented at post offices payment was refused. No doubt the immediate holders of the forged orders are innocent in the sense that they gave value for them; but in accepting them as currency, and that, too, from persons whom they did not know, they did so at their own risk, and of course the Department cannot be responsible for the consequences. Measures are being taken which will tend to prevent frauds of this kind in the future.