HC Deb 22 April 1921 vol 140 cc2237-8W
Mr. IRVING

asked the Postmaster-General if he is aware that to obtain the rate of ½d. postage at least twenty letters must be handed in at the post offices: that if only fifteen letters are posted the rate of postage is 2d. each, so if the sender includes five dummy letters he can save 1s. 8d.; whether he is aware that this is resulting in waste; and if it is possible to take such steps as will remove this anomaly?

Mr. PEASE

The Regulation to which the hon. Member refers relates to circulars printed in imitation of typewriting, or reproduced by a mechanical process from a typewritten original, which if handed in at the counter of a post office, in a batch of not fewer than twenty identical copies, are admissible at the Inland Printed Paper rate. Such circulars are in many cases difficult to distinguish from typewritten letters, and the object of the Regulation is to exclude an ordinary typewritten letter from the benefit of a rate intended to apply to circulars. I am not aware that there is any general practice such as the hon. Member suggests, and I do not think it is necessary to alter the Regulation.