§ 43. Mr. GILBERTasked the Postmaster-General why men serving in the Army abroad are allowed free postage for their letters, while men serving in the Navy on war service have to pay postage on all letters; whether men wounded on active service and in hospitals in this country also have to pay full postage rates; and whether he can place all men of both Services on equal conditions as regards free postage and also allow wounded men in hospitals the same privileges they had at the front for free postage?
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. J. Pease)On most of His Majesty's ships there is no difficulty in maintaining a supply of postage stamps. Letters from vessels unable to obtain stamps are delivered without charge while the difficulty lasts, and the Admiralty do not consider any further extension of free postage to be desirable. As I stated in my reply of the 29th March last to the hon. Member for Mid Armagh, there are serious objections, both in principle and practice, to exempting letters from soldiers in hospitals in this country from payment of postage, but any unpaid or short-paid letter which bears an indication that it was sent by a soldier in hospital is charged on delivery at the single rate only, instead of at the double rate ordinarily chargeable.