§ Mr. Steeleasked the Assistant Postmaster-General why many gift parcels from the U.S.A. and Canada for Britain, posted in October and November, have not yet been delivered in this country.
§ Mr. BurkeDelay is unfortunately 'occurring in the delivery of parcels from overseas, including gift parcels from the U.S.A. and Canada, for three distinct reasons. First, the number of such parcels now being received is enormously greater than in prewar days. For instance, the number of parcels received from abroad for the two months of November and December, 1945, was 4,124,332 as compared with 955,582 during the 12 months ended 31st March, 1940.Second, there is an acute shortage of experienced staff to deal with the parcels at the clearance depots. Third, owing to war damage there is lack of suitable accommodation to deal with the greatly increased volume of overseas mails. I can assure my hon. Friend that every possible effort is being exerted to minimise the delay.