HC Deb 04 August 1902 vol 112 cc498-9
MR. POWER (Waterford, E.)

To ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, if he will state the result of the further search he promised to have made to recover a manuscript of Mr. Sheehan, Ballyhussa, County Waterford, forwarded by post to Messers Benziger Brothers, Publishers, New York; is the Postmaster General aware that the publishers had purchased the manuscript, and, if it is not found, will the postal authorities, considering the loss Mr. Sheehan has sustained, consider the question of compensating him.

(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain.) After repeated search no trace of the manuscript can be found in the Post Office; but there is no proof that it was ever in the hands of, or lost by, the Postmaster General's officers; and he is unable to grant compensation in such circumstances.