§ MR. CHARLES DEVLINI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the Canadian Government have appointed a Royal Commission to deal with the subject of transportation; that at the sitting of the Commission held in Sydney, Nova Scotia, during the third week of January last, evidence was produced that a 23-knot steamer could make the passage from Galway to Sydney in three days and fourteen hours; and that an experiment is to be made by means of a fast steamer during the coming summer, between Galway and Sydney or Halifax, with the view of obtaining information as to the best routes for the conveyance of His Majesty's mails over ocean; and, if so, will he state what contracts now exist, with whom and for what period of time, for the conveyance of His Majesty's mails between Great Britain and Ireland and Canada.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. VICTOR CAVENDISH, Derbyshire, W.)—for Lord STANLEY: My right hon. friend has no information of any Commission appointed by the Canadian Government for the purpose to which the hon. Member refers, nor of any experiments to be made during next summer. The only contract which provides for a direct mail service between Great Britain, Ireland and Canada is one made by the Canadian Government with the Allan Line. He believes it has recently been decided to renew that contract for two years from August, 1904.