§ Mr. TOUCHEasked whether precautions are taken to secure that the soft bags now used for the conveyance of parcels, including articles of food, are kept in a clean and sanitary condition?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe answer is in the affirmative. I am advised that bags can be more thoroughly cleaned than baskets.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked whether, in view of the complaints about parcels smashed in the post, he will, for the protection of the property of the public, revert to the use of parcel hampers or baskets for carriage instead of soft bags?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELBags, as well as baskets, have always been used by the Post Office for parcels. It has been found that their use could properly be extended with a view to a considerable reduction of the total weight of the parcels mails; and this has been done. Baskets are still used for fragile parcels, but the Post Office has never guaranteed, and cannot now guarantee, the safe delivery of such articles as millinery if they are packed with no other protection than a cardboard box, and it is with respect to these that the recent com- 281 plaints have mostly been made. The total number of complaints in proportion to the total traffic has shown no noticeable variation.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked whether representations as to the undesirability of using bags instead of hampers for the conveyance of parcels have been made to him by sorters or others in the employment of the Post Office; if instructions have been issued to dispatching officers to use their discretion in sending fragile parcels, such as hats and millinery, in bags, with a notification that errors of judgment will not call for disciplinary notice; and will he consider a variation of these instructions in the interests of the public?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELA representation was made to me last summer by one of the Post Office Associations, and in reply to it I pointed out the misconceptions upon which it was based. The instruction referred to had for its object not, as the hon. Member seems to suggest, the inculcation of carelessneses in dealing with the goods of the public, but the safeguarding of dispatching officers against blame in respect of the working of a new system of alternative circulation for exceptionally fragile articles.