§ Mr. NIELDasked the Postmaster-General what number of complaints have been received as to undelivered letters and postal packets or parcels during the last six months, and how the figures compare with the corresponding period of 1913–14; and whether the withdrawal of postal servants for service in the War and the filling of their places by temporary labour have been responsible to any appreciable extent for these losses?
§ Mr. HOBHOUSENo statistics are available, but it is believed that the number of complaints for the last six months was higher, at all events in relation to the number of postal packets sent, than that for the corresponding period of 1913–14. The employment of a temporary force to fill the places of postal servants withdrawn for military or naval service has no doubt accounted to some extent for this increase, but the failure of a postal packet to reach the person for whom it is intended does not necessarily imply that a Post Office servant is in fault.