I beg to ask the Postmaster General when the Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee, appointed to consider the recommendation of Lord Jersey as Imperial delegate to the Ottawa Conference with respect to the subsidising of a first line of mail steamers between Great Britain and Canada, is likely to be presented; and, whether the conclusions at which the Committee have arrived will, in view of the great importance of this question to Imperial and Colonial interests, be promptly communicated to the House?

That portion of Lord Jersey's Report on the Ottawa Conference which related to the Mail question was referred by Her Majesty's Government to an Inter-Departmental Committee, which is considering the question arising from the approaching termination of the Mail Contracts to Australia and the East. The deliberations of the Committee must necessarily take some time; as many subjects before them refer to matters of the highest importance to our Indian possessions and the Australian Colonies.