§ *MR. A. C. MORTON (Peterborough)I beg to ask the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been called to a recent prosecution at the Central Criminal Court, conducted by Her Majesty's Solicitor General, against two employees of the General Post Office and others, on a charge of conspiracy to forge and alter betting telegrams, and to utter such telegrams with intent to defraud certain bookmakers, in the course of which prosecution the existence was proved of a racing department at the central office in direct communication with every racecourse, and affording every facility for the transmission of "starting price" betting telegrams; and whether he will take steps to prevent the Post Office being made the medium for betting transactions, which, if made at any other place, might render the parties liable to penalties under the Betting Acts?
§ MR. A. MORLEYThe prosecution to which the hon. Member refers was instituted by me, and I am fully aware of the circumstances of this deplorable case. It is hardly correct to say that there is a racing department in the 1275 Central Telegraph Office, though, for convenience of arrangement and working, the wires dealing with similar classes of work are grouped together. I have no reason to believe that telegrams which might render the sender liable to penalties under the Betting Acts are numerous. But in any case it would be inconsistent with my duty, which obliges me to forward telegrams without preference, to attempt to discriminate between the different classes of telegrams entrusted to the Post Office for transmission.