§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Postmaster General whether he is aware that all German mail steamships, in accordance with the Postal Union arrangement, are provided with German stamps for sale to passengers, and that the passengers habitually post letters bearing these German stamps in English ports, the work of dealing with such letters being partly performed by our Post Office, while all the profit falls to Germany; and whether he will consent to entrust £20,000 or £30,000 worth of British stamps to the owners of our steamships carrying the mails to America, and to the Orient and Peninsular and Oriental Companies carrying the mails to India, the East, and Australia, on sufficient guarantees being given in respect of payment for them, so that every British mail steamship may become, in effect, a travelling British post office, the passengers being privileged to post their letters in any port touched at in the world?
§ *THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON,) Manchester, N.E.The arrangements made by the German Post Office for the sale of German stamps on board the packets referred to are well known; and there is no reason for supposing that passengers post letters bearing German stamps in English ports. If they did, such letters would be chargeable on delivery as unpaid letters. The fact which my hon. Friend probably has in 1036 view is that, on board of each of the packets in question, there is a German travelling post office, at which stamps are sold and letters are posted. The travelling post office makes the letters up in closed mails, which are landed at the most convenient port. Such mails, for instance, are landed at Southampton from the German mail steamers on the way from Bremerhaven to New York. The British Post Office maintains no travelling agency on board any of its mail steamers. Mail packet contractors, however, supply their passengers with stamps, both British and foreign, when they touch at foreign ports; and the Post Office has not heard of any difficulty in obtaining stamps on board British mail packets, or of any necessity to allow its contractors a credit stock of stamps. On and after the 1st July there will be no occasion for passengers on board British steamers, posting letters on the high seas, to obtain any but British stamps.