31. Mr. GIDEON MURRAYasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware of the inconvenience and loss suffered by that section of the community who have business relations with France, owing to the present postal arrangements, under which letters posted in Paris in the afternoon are not delivered in London until between noon and three in the afternoon of the next day, according to the district; whether he has been in communication with the French Government with the object of remedying this situation; and whether, if it is not possible to re-institute the pre-War mail train, leaving the Gare du Nord at nine o'clock in the evening, it could be arranged that the mails be forwarded via Dieppe and Newhaven by the train leaving St. Lazare at 9.5 p.m. each evening and that, as before the War, a postal box should be attached enabling letters bearing a late fee stamp to be posted up to the actual departure of the train?
33. Sir DOUGLAS NEWTONasked the Postmaster-General whether he will endeavour to make an arrangement with the French Government with a view to providing a more rapid postal service between Paris and London?
§ 34. Lieut.-Colonel Sir A. BURGOYNEasked the Postmaster-General whether he has been in communication with the French postal authorities regarding the acceleration of the postal service by night from Paris to London; and, if so, with what result?
§ 35. Sir FRANCIS LOWEasked the Postmaster-General whether it would be possible for him, in consultation with the postal authorities in France, to arrange for the pre-War service of letters between France and England to be resumed, and, particularly, for letters posted in Paris in the afternoon or evening of one day to leave Paris the same 1832 night, so that they might be delivered in London the next morning; whether this could be brought about either by reinstating the mail train, which used to leave the Gare du Nord at 9 p.m., or by utilising the train which now leaves the Gare St. Lazare for Dieppe at 9.15 p.m.; and whether he realises the serious loss and inconvenience which the present system inflicts upon the business communities in both France and England?
§ The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. Pike Pease)My attention has been drawn to this matter. I have more than once brought the question to the notice of the French Post Office, which is responsible for the arrangements for conveying mails from Paris to this country, and I am assured that that Office is fully alive to the desirability of improving the present service. I am not sanguine of an early return to pre-War arrangements, but I am in hopes that it may be found possible to introduce improvements in the present service which will give an earlier delivery in London generally. The transfer of the mails to the Dieppe-Newhaven route is a question for the consideration of the French Post Office.