§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, in view of delays which occur from time to time in the Channel mail service, owing to the inability of mail steamers to enter or leave Calais Harbour, his attention has been directed to an arrangement between the British and French Post Offices to despatch the mails viâ Boulogne only after a delay of not less than 24 hours has occurred; whether he is aware that on two occasions during the past winter mails have been detained at Dover 24 hours; and will he also explain why it is deemed necessary, in the interests of the public on both sides of the Channel, to detain such important mails 24 or even 12 hours at Dover or Calais before despatching them by an alternative and available route?
§ MR. HANBURYThere is no such arrangement as the honourable and gallant Member seems to suppose. There is no fixed interval between the commencement of a storm affecting the use of Calais Harbour, and an attempt to substitute that of Boulogne; but it is, of course, necessary when news comes that Calais Harbour cannot be entered to ascertain not only whether Boulogne Harbour can, but also whether the necessary transfer of personnel from the one port to the other can be arranged so as to save time as compared with waiting for the abatement of the storm. It is the fact that on two occasions during the past winter mails were delayed at Dover for more than 24 hours, but on the first of these two occasions Boulogne, as well as Calais Harbour, was reported to be impracticable. On the second of them the mail was despatched to Boulogne as soon as it was possible to make arrangements for this purpose. Indeed, after they had been so despatched, the French Post Office urgently requested that they should be kept back till they could be sent viâ Calais.