§ MR. WEIRI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether, in considering renewed contracts with the Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company for the conveyance of His Majesty's mails to the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, and other parts of the East, arrangements will be made for steamers to call at a port in British North Borneo.
§ THE POSTMASTER GENERAL (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.I will bear the hon. Member's suggestion in mind for consideration when the Eastern mail arrangements are revised; but I may say at once that, in view of the small amount of correspondence involved, the intricate navigation between Singapore and Sandakan, and the distance of over 1,000 miles between the two ports, it seems hardly likely that either a branch line or a diversion of the main line packets conveying the Eastern mails will prove justifiable.