§ MR. M'KENNA (Monmouthshire, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether, in view of the fact that the telephone exchange for the Abergavenny district is at Pontypool, he could state whether the transfer of the Abergavenny district to the Pontypool Telephone Exchange area is in any way barred by any condition in the Agreement with the National Telephone Company in connection with the purchase of the trunk lines by the State in 1896; and whether he could arrange for such transfer for the convenience of persons resident in the Abergavenny district and in the Pontypool Telephone Exchange area.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe limitation of local telephone exchange business to defined areas was a necessary condition of the Agreement of 1896, under which the Post Office purchased the telephone trunk wires of the National Telephone Company, and undertook the maintenance and extension of the trunk wire system. The fusion of the Pontypool and Abergavenny Exchange areas as defined by that Agreement would involve the abandonment of its main principle.