§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that an official notice is posted at the General Post Office, Colombo, Ceylon, stating that British penny stamps, for use in prepayment of replies by post from the United Kingdom, are now on sale at the office, price seven cents each; whether he will arrange for the sale of Ceylon stamps and stamps of all the Colonies and Dependencies of the Empire at the General Post Office, and also at Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, and Liverpool, for the convenience of persons who wish to send stamps for replies to persons in our possessions I abroad.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, Worcestershire, E.)The Postmaster General has no knowledge of the notice referred to by the hon. Member, but he is aware that the Colombo Post Office procured a supply of British postage stamps for the purpose specified. The Postmaster General has no evidence before him of any effective demand for the sale of Colonial stamps by the British Post Office, and concurs in the opinion expressed on behalf of his predecessor when a similar question was asked by the hon. Member on the 22nd of August, 1895, and again on the 26th of March, 1896. †
†See (4) Debates xxxvi., 567; xxxix., 162.