§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the Postmaster-General, if a record is kept of the number of complaints received in respect of articles smashed in the post; and, if so, can he state the number of complaints received during the months of December, 1911, and January, 1912?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELI called recently for some figures upon this subject, and found that no complete and trustworthy return could be made without much labour and communication with every head office in the United Kingdom. So far as I was able to judge from the figures ready to hand, which related to the complaints received at the chief office in London, no higher estimate of complaints could possibly be made than one for every 3,000 parcels sent; and as I stated in reply to a recent question, there is no sign of any noticeable increase in the number of complaints.
§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the Postmaster-General if, for the better protection of the goods of the public and with a view to diminishing occasions of reasonable complaint that articles are smashed in the post, he will consider the use of a special or excess stamp which, when added to the ordinary postage, will secure careful treatment and better prospects of safe delivery of fragile packages, thus enabling the sender to determine whether an article sent is to be specially handled and diminishing the difficulties of dispatching officers?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELNot only has this suggestion been made and considered recently, but it was made and considered, I believe, before the Parcel Post was begun in 1883, and on many occasions since. There are serious objections to the imposition of a fee as payment for special treatment in respect of any parcel deemed by the Post Office to be fragile, or to the acceptance of a fee in respect of any parcel deemed by the sender to be fragile. I do not think that the public would approve an 738 arrangement which would be considered to imply that special care would not be taken of fragile parcels unless the sender was willing to pay an addition to the postage charge.