The House may recollect that at the last sitting a complaint was made in reference to irregularity connected with delivery of letters addressed to Senators. There was a particular case in which three letters had been handed into the office in the hall, addressed to three different Senators, and the messenger refused to receive them unless they were stamped. Stamps were affixed to them, but they were not cancelled by the Post Office, nor did they pass through the Post Office. From that day until this no more has been heard about these letters. The attention of the Officer of the Guard was called to this incident and he has sent me a communication which, I think, I ought to read to the House. It is as follows:—
"In reply to your letter of the 22nd inst., concerning letters handed in at Leinster House by the Marchioness MacSwiney on the 23rd November, 1926, I beg to inform you that:—
(a) Usher Kirk states that he was requested to take letters from a lady on 23/11/'26, and that he refused to receive them unless they bore postage stamps. The lady affixed postage stamps and Kirk then handed the letters to Usher Brennan, who was on duty in the Inquiry Office. Brennan states that he placed the letters in the Seanad Letter Rack, and that next day they were transferred from the Rack to the Order Paper table in the Seanad Ante-room. Beyond that, I can find no trace of the letters, although I have made every possible inquiry.
(b) I have issued instructions to the Usher Staff to accept all letters addressed to Senators, whether bearing postage stamps or not. But, in this connection, I desire to point out that I have instructions to refuse packets of unstamped circulars or letters addressed to members of the other House. It is left to my own discretion to decide how many such unstamped circulars or letters should be received or rejected at any one time. All rejected letters or circulars have to be sent through Post Office channels. It would simplify matters for my Department if you could find it possible to have a similar ruling made with regard to packets or unstamped circulars and letters addressed to Senators.
(c) Usher Kirk was guilty of an error in having refused to accept the Marchioness MacSwiney's letters unless she affixed postage stamps. In any case of doubt an Usher is bound to refer to me, and in this instance Kirk did not consult me. He has been severely reprimanded."
I think it is only right to say that on that statement Usher Kirk seemed to be following out the instructions he received. I am not quite sure that the blame should be placed on him, but that is a matter between his superior officer and himself. It does seem an unsatisfactory state of affairs that it should be left to the Captain of the Guard to determine how many circulars or letters shall be rejected or shall be delivered. There should be some better rule than that on the matter, and I shall ask the Procedure Committee to look into it and draw up a resolution with regard to it.
I should mention, by way of explanation of non-receipt of agenda papers this morning by Senators, that, for some reason unexplained, the usual collection of letters made in Leinster House by the Post Office at 10.30 p.m. was not made last night, and, consequently, the agenda papers were not circulated.