§ MR. HENNIKER HEATON (Canterbury)To ask the Postmaster-General whether the letters from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States and Canada are carried in the fast and powerful American and German steamships at the rate of 1s. 8d. per lb., while the British Government pays 3s. per lb. or a sum equalling 3s. per lb. for the conveyance of letters on British ships; whether the whole cost of conveying the mails for the United States of America and Canada, sent viâ New York at the higher rate, is charged to the British Post Office; and whether he has made any protest to the Chancellor of the Exchequer with a view to having the accounts in this respect adjusted, seeing that the higher rates are properly given to British shipowners for other than postal purposes; and what would be the saving to the British Post Office if the whole of the letters and newspapers transmitted last year to New York were paid for at the rate given to German and American vessels.
(Answered by Mr. Sydney Buxton.) The facts are not as the hon. Member supposes. The payment to the American and German companies is made at the Postal Union rate, equivalent up to 31st December last to 1s. 9½d. a pound, and since that date to 1s. 5d. a pound. 1321 The payment to the British contract vessels for the last contract year, expiring on 31st July last, for the conveyance of letters to the United States and Canada viâ New York, amounted (so far as can be estimated) to a sum slightly in excess of 1s. 10d. per pound. This sum decreases as the quantity of mail increases. The whole of the payment made out of the Post Office Vote to the contracting companies is paid exclusively in respect of postal services. It is estimated that in the year 1907 the payment made for the conveyance of letters and other articles exceeded by about £1,500 the sum which would have been paid under Postal Union rates. In so far as a higher payment is made in respect of the use of British than of German or American vessels the explanation is not that the excess is paid for a non-postal service, but that it is the consideration for contractual obligations of speed and regularity, etc., which do not rest on the owners of vessels, whether foreign or British, which are not under contract with His Majesty's Government.