§ MR. H. FOSTERI beg to ask the Postmaster General whether his attention has been called to the fact that the chairman of the National Telephone Company, Limited, at the annual general meeting of that Company, held upon the 25th instant, stated that they had come to an agreement with the Post Office, which can now be submitted to the House of Commons for confirmation; whether such agreement has been entered into; and, if so, on what date, and when it will be submitted to the House for confirmation; and whether he will be able to state what 1135 opportunity will be afforded to the House for considering the agreement?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI think it may be said that an agreement has at last been arrived at between the National Telephone Company and the Post Office; but until the approval of the Company has been formally conveyed to me, and the sanction of the Treasury obtained, I shall not be in a position to lay the draft agreement on the Table of the House. I think it right to add that some questions connected with the Companies controlled by the National Company must first be settled, but I have no reason to apprehend that this will involve serious difficulty or delay. In answer to the last paragraph, I would point out that the agreement does not require the confirmation of Parliament, and I am therefore not aware that any special opportunity for its consideration will be necessary, but the subject is one which can in due course be raised on the Telegraph Estimates.
§ MR. LABOUCHERE (Northampton)I should like to ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he did not promise that the agreement should be laid on the Table before it was signed, and whether that does not involve some sort of discussion?
§ MR. HENNIKER HEATONBefore that question is answered, may I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman will undertake that the question shall not be finally settled before the House has had an opportunity of expressing its opinion upon it, and whether he will also give us an undertaking that if this matter comes on at the end of the Session he will give us a promise that the carrying out of the agreement shall be postponed till next Session?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI cannot give any such undertaking. I have already distinctly stated that the agreement will be laid on the Table before being signed. But I may say that this agreement is merely the formal embodiment in a legal document of an agreement signed by the late Government carrying out a policy which in the Telegraph Act of 1892 had been approved by the House of Commons.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREDo I understand there is no alteration at all?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI think practically there is no alteration; there has been, of course, a great amount of work 1136 in deciding on the areas, but the agreement is practically on the same lines as that which has already been sanctioned by Parliament.
§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)Does the right hon. Gentleman mean to say that the fact of laying the agreement before the last Parliament binds the present one? Will he lay the agreement before Parliament before it is signed, so that we shall have an opportunity of discussing it?
§ MR. A. MORLEYI have stated over and over again that the agreement will be laid on the Table of the House before it is signed. Proper time will be given to hon. Members to consider it.