I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £3,366,630 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1950, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (45 and 46 Vict., c. 74; 8 Edw. 7, c. 48; 1 and 2 Geo. 5, c. 26; the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1928; No. 14 of 1940 (secs. 30 and 31); No. 14 of 1942 (sec.23); etc.), and of certain other Services administered by that office.
A lot of unnecessary heat was raised on Thursday about this matter of free postage. Deputies must relate what I said about prepayment of letters to Government Departments to my earlier statement that the privilege of free postage was intended to apply to correspondence which was on the business of the State. There is no doubt in my mind, nor I should imagine in the minds of any Deputy that the privilege has been abused. Everyone will agree that abuses should be stopped. That is what I intended to do. But in trying to stop the abuse I do not intend to go further. So far as I am satisfied that the condition "on the business of the State" is fulfilled, I have no desire or intention to interfere with it.
Last Thursday Deputies made reference to the widow and the orphan and the poor man applying for a grant. If those people or any others are writing on the business of the State, their letters will be delivered in the ordinary way, whether they are prepaid or not. And as I hinted last Thursday the letters which Deputies send to Government Departments will be delivered in the future as in the past. The question of how my intentions can be achieved and how abuses can be stopped is something which is being considered as a matter of administration. Again I want to emphasise that what I want to do is to stop abuses and not to stop legitimate user of the privilege. I never intended and do not now intend to prevent persons sending letters to Departments without prepayment of postage as long as these letters are genuinely official letters and that is a public assurance from me. I do not stand for, and I think the House will not stand for, abuse of that privilege by persons who are well able to pay postage and should pay postage on private letters seeking contracts, requesting that special records be played on the radio and seeking autographs, etc.