§ * MR. SOARES (Devonshire, Barnstaple)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether his attention has been called to the inquiries recently made with reference to proposed improved postal facilities at Berrynarbor, in North Devon; whether he is aware that farmers in this district suffer inconvenience and loss by the lack of a daily delivery of letters, and that at some farms within the district there is a delivery of letters; twice a day, whilst at other farms within five minutes walk from the first-mentioned farms there is a delivery on four days a week only; and whether he will, having regard to the profits made by the Department, consider the advisability of improving the postal facilities in Berrynarbor and other agricultural districts, even though these improved facilities may not be immediately remunerative to the Department.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe Department is already spending 841 on the delivery of letters at the farms referred to on four days a week a sum greater than the whole of the postage derived from the correspondence delivered, and under these circumstances the Postmaster General would not be justified in sanctioning any further expenditure in order to afford a daily delivery.
§ * MR. SOARESHas the Post Office adopted the policy of a trading monopoly—
§ MR. SPEAKEROrder, order!