§ MR. COHEN (Islington, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that the afternoon mail train is frequently detained at Dover in consequence of the late arrival of the steam packet either from Calais or Ostond; and whether, with the view of saving a detention of mails and passengers at Dover, he will suggest to the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Company that the mails and passengers by the Ostend and Calais steamers should always be conveyed from Dover to London by the same railway route, so that each of the two trains shall leave Dover as soon as possible after the arrival of the steamer whose mails and passengers they would by this arrangement convey.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINOf the two trains from Dover which run in connection with the day mail packets from the Continent, one only, that going via, Ashford, is under the control of the Postmaster General. He does not consider that special expense would be warranted in order to obtain control over the other train going viâ Chatham. Whenever it happens that the packet from Calais is late, the mail train viâ Ashford is detained until the arrival of that packet, which carries very heavy and important mails. When the Belgian packet, bringing much smaller mails, is late, the train in question waits only a short time for it. It is understood that the railway company detain the train going via Chatham in the same way as the mail train, and with this arrangement the Postmaster General has no power to interfere.