§ Mr. FFRENCHasked the Postmaster-General what amount of subsidy has been paid by his Department for the acceleration effected within the past twenty-six years of the mail trains on the Dublin and South-Eastern Railway line in connection with the mail boat to Kingstown; whether this subsidy is still continued; whether there would be any objection from a postal standpoint to the morning down mail train being started at the same time as the morning down mail trains on the Great Northern, the Great Southern and Western, and the Midland and Great Western Railways; whether he requires the mail trains on the Dublin and South-Eastern Railway to stop at all the small stations on the journey, or whether these stations, including those only 3 to 4 miles apart, could now be served with mails in, the same manner as before the recent changes; whether the extreme time between the arrival of the down mail and the return of the up mail for English letters for the country generally has been reduced, so that Belfast loses one hour, Cork loses one hour and twenty-five minutes, Galway loses one hour and fifty-five minutes, and Wexford loses four hours; whether the margin of time in Wexford has been reduced from seven hours to three hours; whether this reduction is virtually twice as much as that made in Galway, three times as much as that in Cork, and four times as much as that in Belfast; and whether, in view of the inconvenience suffered by the commercial, industrial, and professional classes concerned, and of the apparently unfair differentiation against Wexford, Enniscorthy, and New Ross, and provided that the special local committee appointed for the purpose of dealing with this question can produce a practical scheme which will not involve increased coal consumption and produce very slight, 52W if any, inconvenience to the travelling public, he will order a new service by which Wexford will be treated in something like the same manner as the other terminal towns on the main lines out of Dublin?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHNo question of subsidy arises in this case, for the train alterations to which the hon. Member refers were necessary in the national interest and were carried out on instructions issued by the Irish Railway Executive Committee at the request of the Government. I had no alternative but to accept them. I will consider any suggestion for the improvement of the mail service which does not involve increased consumption of coal or increased expenditure.