§ LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Post Office intend to issue a special postage stamp next year, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lord Byron's death.
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I am advised that the Post Office has not yet announced its stamp programme for 1974.
§ LORD STRABOLGIMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that reply. Arising out of it, may I ask whether he is aware that in 1924, when Britain had no pictorial stamps, Greece issued a stamp for the Byron Centenary? Will he urge the Post Office to give very careful consideration to this, particularly as they have already commemorated several other poets, and Byron was a European figure?
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I am sure that the Post Office will listen to what the noble Lord, Lord Strabolgi, has said, but since the establishment of the Post Office as a Corporation it has become the custom that it is not right for Her Majesty's Government to advise the Post Office as to which pictorial stamps should be used.
§ LORD SLATERMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that within the archives of the Post Office there is a tremendous list of applications made by Members of both Houses to the Post Office for particular stamps relating to certain individuals who have played a prominent part in the history of this country? Perhaps in time, and through the persistency of my noble friend, the day will come when my noble friend may achieve his object.
§ LORD DENHAMThe noble Lord, Lord Slater, is quite right. Every distinguished man in every field in every generation has two anniversaries which can be celebrated: his birth and his death. It is quite impossible to celebrate them all.
§ BARONESS SUMMERSKILLMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he has forgotten that women are born and die?
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I had not realised that I gave the noble Baroness any cause to question this.
§ LORD SEGALMy Lords, if the Post Office should decide—
THE LORD PRIVY SEAL (EARL JELLICOE)My Lords, on the usual basis of equitable "ping-pong", I think it is Lord Robbin's turn to speak.
§ LORD ROBBINSMy Lords, my question is a very modest one. While not in the least differing from the opinion of the noble Lord who answered the original Question, or asking him even to advise the Post Office about this, I was going to ask whether he would agree that a stamp of this particular kind would probably be more popular among our recently acquired colleagues in the Common Market than any other conceivable stamp?
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I would be happy to give the noble Lord, Lord Robbins, my own personal views; but I do not think it would be proper for me to do so from this Dispatch Box.
§ LORD SEGALMy Lords, if the Post Office should decide to issue such a stamp, could one ask that it be not confined to letters destined for China, Japan, the Philippines and Australasia. This was the case for the last commemorative stamp for 9p. Could the commemorative stamp be issued for rather wider circulation, in denominations of either 3p or 2½p?
§ LORD DENHAMMy Lords, I am sure that the Post Office will take note of what the noble Lord, Lord Segal, has said.
§ LORD NUGENT OF GUILDFORDMy Lords, would my noble friend be able to indicate the type of memorial that would be suitable for Lord Byron, and what he might have thought of the Colonels?