§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONI beg to ask the Postmaster General (1) whether any accounts are kept of the fines, varying from a few pence up to several shillings, levied upon the recipients in this country of insufficiently stamped letters and postcards coming from abroad; (2) whether the amount of such fines is retained by the British Post Office, or whether any payment on account of them is made to the Post Offices of the countries of origin; and (3) whether he will lay upon the Table, or furnish orally, a statement of the amounts received for such fines during the past financial year?
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. ARNOLD MORLEY, Nottingham, E.)No separate account is kept of the amount collected on the delivery of insufficiently stamped letters and postcards received from abroad. No payment is made on account of them to the Post Offices of the countries of origin, it being one of the primary principles of the Postal Union that each country 1529 shall retain the sums it collects. With regard to the last paragraph of the question, I beg leave to state that, as I informed the hon. Member on the 26th of February, it is not possible to give these figures.