§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, seeing that the vessels of the Elder and Dempster Company (Beaver Line), of Liverpool, carry His Majesty's and the Canadian mails, he can state what steps, if any, he has taken to see that the Pair Wages Resolution of the House of Commons of 1891 will be carried out so far as the firemen employed on the Beaver Line of Royal Mail steamers from Liverpool are concerned; and having regard to the fact that the current rate of wages on steamships sailing out of Liverpool which carry the mails to the United States of America is £5 per month for firemen can he state what is the present rate of wages which is paid to firemen employed on board the vessels of the Beaver The employed in carrying the mails.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe mails for Canada are conveyed under contract with the Canadian Post Office, not with the Postmaster General; and the present contractors are not Messrs. Elder, Dempster and Company, but Messrs. Allan. The Postmaster General has no knowledge of the present rate of wages paid to firemen of the Beaver line.