§ MR. M'KENNA (Monmouthshire, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, in the case of a telegram having been misdirected, there is any rule which prohibits the postmaster at the office at which the telegram has been received from informing the person for whom it is intended of the fact of its having been received; whether his attention has been called to the inconvenience which was recently caused at Grosmont by the alleged existence of such a rule; and whether, if such a rule exists, he can see his way to recommending that greater latitude should be allowed to postmasters to permit of their divulging in such cases the fact that a telegram has been received, though not its contents.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The circumstances under which telegrams are misdirected vary so greatly that the Postmaster General would prefer not to answer upon a hypothetical case. It is of course of great importance in the interests of the public that information respecting telegrams should not be divulged. Postmasters are, however, called upon to exercise a reasonable discretion. The Postmaster General has made inquiry in the case of Grosmont, a village in Herefordshire. The telegrams were simply addressed to the name of the village, and it was not at first known for whom they were intended. It eventually appeared that there had been a misapprehension on the part of the senders, the telegrams being intended for a doctor at Grosmont.