§ MR. BARKER (Penrhyn and Falmouth)To ask the Postmaster-General whether he will provide facilities for stamping documents in county boroughs, 348 the present method of handing in such documents at a post office for transmission to London being attended with inconvenience and delay, especially in the case of ships, which have often been well on the voyage before the documents were available.
(Answered by Mr. Asquith.) The matter is one that concerns the Board of Inland Revenue and not the Post Office. Facilities of the kind desired are already at twenty-six places outside London (see List annexed); whether, in fact, the amount of business to be transacted appears to justify the cost of providing stamping facilities. Even in places where such facilities are not provided, documents deposited for stamping can, as a rule, be reclaimed not later than the second day after being handed in, and it is not found in practice that inconvenience results from this short delay.