§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that when a person sends any small sum of money from Great Britain to Germany through the Post Office the money is taken to the residence of the person to whom it is addressed, but in the case of money sent from Germany or elsewhere to this country the receiver of the money order has to go to the post office for the money; whether he will introduce the German system into this country, in view of the convenience that would result in case of telegraph money orders if the money was taken to the residence of the addressee, as is the practice in every foreign country, and of the saving of time and protection that would be afforded if the money with the 10,000,000 money orders annually issued in this country were brought to the people's residences rather than 10,000,000 persons should have to go to the post offices for the money, and of the saving of time involved in one person delivering the money with 200 money orders than that of 200 persons going to the post office in a town for the money.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The system of money orders payable at the residences of the addressees, which the hon. Member describes as the German system, has some advantages and many drawbacks. It has frequently been considered and rejected as less advantageous on the whole in this country than the present system. But I cannot accept my hon. friend's assumptions nor his figures. For instance, half of the ten millions of money orders which he mentions are paid through banks, so that it is not the case that ten million persons have to go to the post office to cash ten million orders.