§ Mr. PROVAND (Glasgow, Blackfriars)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether the National Telephone Company have intimated to the Postmaster General that they agree, in terms of Section 3 of the Telegraphs Act, 1899, to it being made a condition of their licence that they will not give preference to any person within the area specified in the licence by the Postmaster General to the Corporation of Glasgow, and will not within that area, as a condition of giving a service, require any person to grant any facility except for the purposes of supplying telephonic communication to that person; whether they have claimed, in respect of coming under this condition, that the permissive powers to open streets in certain burghs within that area now hold good for the whole term of their licence, and further, that their licence be extended from 1911 to 1913, so as to terminate at the same time as the licence to the Corporation of Glasgow; whether the company have issued a print of an agreement with subscribers in the Glasgow area, dated 18th June, 1900, under which the intending subscriber must bind himself as a condition of receiving a connection from the company not to subscribe to any exchange telephone system other than that of the company, or use at any of his premises any telephone instruments in connection 780 with any such other system, and the company thus propose to give favour of preference to persons in the Glasgow district who do not join the Corporation Telephone Exchange as against those persons who do join that exchange; and what steps the Postmaster General is prepared to take to secure that the company shall not obtain privileges under last year's Telegraphs Act, and at the same time refuse its obligations.
§ Mr. HANBURYThe National Telephone Company have stated to the Postmaster General that they are willing that the conditions mentioned in the question shall be made a condition of their licence. They have also undertaken to prove to the satisfaction of the Postmaster General that they have incurred, or contracted to incur, material expenditure in laying underground wires in certain burghs in the Glasgow area, and have acquired powers for the purpose under agreements with the local authorities. The Postmaster General is not aware that the company have at present claimed that the powers given by their agreements with local authorities in the Glasgow area will hold good during the period of the licence granted to the Corporation of Glasgow, and that their licence will be extended for the full period of the corporation licence; but, when the conditions to be observed on the part of the company have been duly complied with, they will, no doubt, claim that they are entitled to the advantages specified in Section 3 of the Telegraph Act, 18a9. The Postmaster General's attention has been drawn to the form of agreement now being offered by the company to their subscribers. There is some doubt whether the condition mentioned by the hon. Member can be held to be a breach of the undertaking not to give preference to persons in the Glasgow area, but there is another condition in the agreement form —that as to giving way-leaves for the wires of other persons—which would unquestionably be a violation of the undertaking not to require any person to grant any facility except for the purpose of supplying telephonic communication to that person. Any breach of the new conditions which the company are to accept as conditions of their licence will, when those conditions are legally in force, render the company liable to the same penalty as a breach of the original 781 conditions—namely, the termination of their licence.