§ Mr. BARKERasked the Postmaster-General if arrangements have beer, made by His Majesty's Government to transmit mails to China and the Far East via the Siberian Railway in order to give merchants in the Far East the benefit of the quicker despatch?
§ Mr. HARTSHORNIt is open to the British Post Office, under the Postal Union Convention, to send mails for China and the East (except Japan) by the Trans-Siberian route, and for the past year mails have, in fact, been sent by that route when specially marked by the senders. But the British Post Office has, of course, no control over, or responsibility for, the safety of the mails after they are despatched from this country.