§ MR. FORTESCUE FLANNERYI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if his attention has been called to the fact that the mail bag from Bradford to New York, sent on 21st December last for the Lucania, and also the bag sent on 12th February for the Teutonic, missed the connections between Bradford and Queenstown; whether any intimation was made to the postal authorities at Bradford of the connection having been missed, so that they might give public notice of the delay and thus prevent serious loss to manufacturers in the West Riding of Yorkshire; and if the Postmaster General will give orders that in future any such accidental delay shall be notified to the office of origin of the mail bag so delayed, with a view to saving the senders of letters the heavy losses that would otherwise arise from their ignorance of the delay in their commercial correspondence?
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLASIt is the fact that on the occasions referred to the mail bag from Bradford for New York missed connection owing to irregularity in the train service. It has not been the general practice to notify the office of origin in such cases of delay, and, indeed, it would be difficult in all cases to do so, but so far as Bradford is concerned, instructions have been given for such failures to be notified in future. The same practice will be followed, as far as practicable, in the case of other large towns.