Note 95 — Chapter IX

Mr. Frederick Hill was the principal witness from the Post Office examined by the Committee of the House of Commons, that sat in 1866, upon the postal and telegraph communications of England with the East. The whole tendency of Mr. Hill’s evidence was, that no further accommodation or increased frequency of mails should be given to the public, unless the Post Office were indemnified against all hazard of loss—even temporary—either by increasing the rates of postage, or by the obtention of a special appropriation from the Government of India. It was in consequence of the character of this evidence, and of correspondence which had passed between the India Office, the Treasury, and the Post Office department (which appears in the Appendices to the Report) that the Committee inserted the following paragraph:—