§ Captain CROOKSHANKasked the Postmaster-General what are the objections to using a date stamp to advertise the national mark?
§ Mr. LEES-SMITHIt is impossible without serious delay and expense to discriminate in the use of a date stamp advertisement and any legend embodied in date stamps must therefore appear on letters from all senders and for all destinations. Many persons in this country resent the use of their correspondence for propaganda, and this applies particularly to firms engaged in legitimate trades, such as the importation and distribution of foreign meat who object to propaganda inimical to their interests being printed on correspondence despatched by them. Moreover, experience shows that advertisements urging preference for a British product which, if authorised at all, would necessarily appear on letters for delivery abroad, are1766W misunderstood and resented in foreign countries. British exporters have in fact pressed for the abandonment of a some what similar legend on the ground that it was damaging their prospects of securing foreign orders.