§ MR. MACFARLANE (Argyll)I beg to ask the Postmaster General if he is aware that considerable delay in the carriage of the mails from Oban to Bunessan, Iona, and Coll and Tiree arises from the fact that the steamer calls at Crogan going and returning, and if it would be possible to send the mails by a more direct route; and whether it is his intention to require the contractor to supply a better and more powerful steamer than the Fingal, that vessel 627 being considered unsafe as well as too slow for the work?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. A. MORLEY, Nottingham, E.)The time tables of the mail steamers on the west coast of Scotland were arranged in concert with the Scottish Office, and have in view not only the Postal Service, but also the convenience of passengers and of traffic. At the present season of the year the call at Crogan of the Oban and Bunessan steamer causes no delay to the mails, as they are conveyed between Oban and Tobermory by another vessel, for which the Bunessan steamer has to wait at Tobermory. It is only in the summer that the call at Crogan is prejudicial to the mail service, and I will consult my right hon. Friend the Secretary for Scotland before the next summer season as to the necessity for maintaining the call at Crogan. Apart, however, from any alteration of the packet service, I am at the present moment considering whether it may not be possible to effect an improvement of the post to Bunessan by the route from Craignure through the Island of Mull. As regards the mail steamer Fingal, I am informed that it is capable of maintaining the contract speed in ordinary weather; and that the time bills show that it does so. The vessel is stated to be a good sea boat, which is an important point, in view, of the very unfavourable conditions under which the service has constantly to be performed.