§ SIR JOHN LENG (Dundee)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether he is aware that the commercial and manufacturing interests in Scotland complain of the frequent interruptions and in some cases the total collapse, of the telegraph service during the storms of the past winter, causing loss, and placing them at a disadvantage compared with their competitors on the Continent, and especially in Germany, where such interruptions are now, through the adoption of the underground system of telegraphy, unknown; whether he can state the relative length of underground telegraph lines in this country and in Germany; and whether it is proposed to extend the underground system from Birmingham to the north of England and Scotland, which have both suffered so much from the interruption of telegraphic communication during the last two winters.
§ THE FINANCIAL SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN,) Worcestershire, E.The 1572 answer to the first part of the hon. Member's question is in the affirmative; but he is under a misapprehension in supposing that interruptions are unknown in Germany. On the 12th instant, the day when his question appeared on the Paper, eleven out of the twenty-two wires between this country and Germany were interrupted, and in no case was the interruption in this country. According to the latest statistics in the Postmaster General's possession, the length of underground line in Germany was about 3,940 miles, while in the United Kingdom there were at the same date 1,080 miles. The mileage of underground wire on the other hand was 26,750 for Germany and 10,600 for the United Kingdom. The Postmaster General proposes during the ensuing financial year to begin the construction of two additional sections of underground line to the North.