§ MR. FAITHFULL BEGG (Glasgow, St. Rollox)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he can now give an answer to the repeated demands by the Corporation of Glasgow and others for fresh telephone licences; and 1236 whether, in view of the number of such demands, and the confusion in the telephone service which might arise from granting them, he will consider the advisability of taking advantage of the break which occurs in the existing licences in the present year, and thus by purchase concentrate the sole control and working of the telephones in the Post Office Department.
§ MR. HANBURYThe Government are willing to agree to a public Inquiry, not conducted by officials of the Post Office, into the complaints made by the Corporation of Glasgow with reference to the existing telephone service, including in such Inquiry the grounds upon which the Corporation decline to allow the National Telephone Company the privilege of taking up the roadways for laying their wires. The Government have definitely decided not to purchase from the National Telephone Company, as suggested in the Question.
§ MR. HANBURYIt will be carried on either by a barrister or an expert.
§ SIR CHARLES CAMERON (Glasgow, Bridgeton)Has the Corporation of Glasgow asked for an Inquiry?
§ MR. HANBURYNo; but I think in view of the complaints of the Corporation of Glasgow against the National Telephone Company, it is only fair, if they insist on those complaints, that an Inquiry should be held.