asked the Postmaster-General the annual loss, for the most recent completed year, to the Post Office on the halfpenny letter post and the average loss per letter delivered stamped with a halfpenny stamp?

It is broadly estimated that the excess cost of handling the printed paper post, taken at the average, over the revenue derived from it, was in 1930–31 about £1,200,000, or about one-fifth penny per packet. These figures do not, however, take account of the fact that, under existing conditions, the printed paper post to some extent employs staff, accommodation, etc., which would otherwise not be fully occupied; and to that extent, which cannot precisely be stated, the estimates quoted would have to be modified.

Has my right hon. Friend taken into consideration the fact that, if one penny were charged on each of these communications instead of a half-penny, it would still be a special postal arrangement which would occupy the same staff of his Department, and that by that simple device he could turn: a very large loss into a very considerable profit?

While it is true that it would turn a loss into a very considerable profit, in view of the size and use made by industry of this halfpenny post, the proposal my hon. Friend makes would raise very large questions, of policy which I cannot deal with in answer to a supplementary question.

Mr. MACLEAN:

Does not this amount to a subsidy from the Government to industry?