§ COLONEL DENNYI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has been made aware that the Third Reading of the African Mail Steamship Subsidy Amendment Bill has been passed without debate in the Reichstag in Berlin, and whether this Bill increases the subsidy paid for East African German mail service from £45,000 to £65,000 per annum; whether the company carrying out the service has increased its number of sailings per annum; whether there is any regular British line sailing from the United Kingdom to the East Coast of Africa without transhipment; and, if not, whether the Government intend to do anything in the shape of a moderate subsidy to encourage a direct line of steamers.
§ * MR. BRODRICKThe answer to the first two paragraphs of the hon. Member's question is in the affirmative. We do not know whether since the passage of the Bill the company has increased its 584 sailings, but such an increase was contemplated. There is no direct line from the United Kingdom to the East Coast of Africa without transhipment. It has not been hitherto the practice to grant subsidies except as payment for the carriage of mails.