§ CAPTAIN NORTON (Newington, W.)I bog to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, in connection with the occasional delays in the Channel Mail Service, he will consider the advisability of limiting the period of the detention of the mails at Dover to six hours when the mail steamers are unable to enter Calais Harbour, and cause the mails to be dispatched viâ Boulogne, seeing that Boulogne Harbour is rarely impracticable at the same time as Calais Harbour?
§ MR. HANBURYAs I have already informed the honourable and gallant Member the whole matter is one for concerted arrangement between the French and English Post Offices and the Railway Companies concerned. Some time must necessarily elapse before a definite understanding can be arrived at, because the North of France Railway Company, who are the contractors for the day mail service, are unwilling to pledge themselves to use the Boulogne route until they have had some experience of the working of the steamers which they are having constructed.