§ 39. Mr. CRAVEN-ELLISasked the Postmaster-General whether, to encourage the development of the air mail to East Africa, he will draw attention, through the usual channels of Post Office publicity, to the fact that during the past three months the 12 weekly services to Kenya have arrived at the entry port thereto within one and a-half hours of the scheduled time on 11 occasions whilst on the 12th the delay involved was only 18½ hours, and that in future under-stamped letters addressed by that route will not be held up as hitherto and sent by boat?
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Sir Kingsley Wood)The figures quoted by my hon. Friend are correct; but they relate to Isamu only. The bulk of the Kenya air mail is off-loaded at Nairobi and I may say the standard of punctuality of arrival of the aeroplanes at that town is not quite so high as he would appear to suggest. The exceptional arrangement under which under-stamped letters are forwarded by air and not retained for the ordinary route is of a provisional character, and its maintenance depends on the extent to which underpayment is found to prevail and on the consent of the other Postal Administrations concerned.