§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Report on the Post Office of India shows that during the
† See (4) Debates, cvii, 1342.1373 financial year 1900–1 there were fifty-seven cases in which mails were plundered by highway robbers, of which forty-two were in British Territories and fifteen in Native States. Will he state the value of the mails thus plundered; I have any measures been taken for their better protection; and can he say how many similar cases of robbery occurred during the financial year 1901–2.
§ LORD G. HAMILTONI am aware of the figures quoted from the I Post Office Report. The paragraph of the Report from which the figures are taken shows that the entire mail was recovered in fourteen cases and a part of the mail in twenty-eight cases, and that the Government suffered loss in nineteen cases, the total amount of the loss being about £171. I am not aware that any special measures have been taken for the better protection of the mails. The Post Office Report for 1901–2 has not; yet reached me.