COLONEL WELBY (Taunton)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that many poor persons have no private means of weighing printed papers for post; and whether he can say what regulation in the Post Office Guide denies to the public the right of having printed packets weighed as part service for postage paid, while compelling the public to hand in all parcels for parcel post to be weighed.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) The regulation on the subject will be found at page 46, paragraph 4, of the Post Office Guide. It may well be the case that many people have no private means of weighing packets for the post, but in practice postmasters almost invariably weigh packets for the public when asked to do so. If the hon. Member has any specific case in view and will be good enough to give me particulars, I will have inquiry made.
COLONEL WELBYTo ask the Postmaster-General whether he can see his way to establishing a system by which a printed packet weighed at a post office for sending abroad shall be so stamped or marked as to identify the office, and thus save the detention of the packet in the General Post Office until insufficient postage has been collected from the addressee in a foreign country.
(Answered by Lord Stanley.) A packet for a place abroad which is entitled to pass as a packet of printed papers is sent forward without delay, even if the postage paid is insufficient. A packet which exceeds the maximum weight for printed papers becomes subject to the rules for parcels, which require payment of the whole postage before despatch. Cases in which the error is caused by a mistake in weighing the packet at a post office are so rare that I do not think it necessary to make special provision for them.