§ Mr. LOUGHI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General, whether any post office telephone exchanges, under the management of the Post Office, have yet been opened in London, and can he state what is the total number of subscribers to the Post Office System in the Metropolis up to the present, and if no exchanges have yet been opened when it is anticipated that any will be provided.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe number of agreements for connections with the Post Office London Telephone Exchange system up to Saturday last was about 2,250, but many of these agreements cover the use of a number of exchange telephones. The work of connecting the premises of these subscribers with the Central Exchange by means of the underground system, which has already been constructed, is now in active progress, and an exchange service will probably be given to those subscribers to the Central Exchange whose lines have been completed in the course of the present week. Additional subscribers are being connected every day. The exchanges at Putney, Chiswick, and Kingston, are so far advanced that the work of connecting subscribers can be taken in hand at once. The Westminster, Kensington, 359 Wimbledon, Richmond, and Twickenham Exchanges will begin working shortly. The Exchange at Croydon, and an exchange to serve Mayfair, Marylebone, and Bayswater, will probably be completed by the end of the year. Arrangements are also in progress for an Exchange at Hampstead, and the surveys for the underground work in connection with a number of other Exchanges are nearly completed.
MR. LOUDHI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury, as representing the Postmaster General whether, from 9 p.m. till 7 a.m., the trunk wires of the Post Office telephones are switched on to the system of the National Telephone Company; and whether the control of the State telephone business is in the hands of the Company between these hours.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe chief exchanges of the National Telephone Company, as well as of other licences of the Postmaster General, are connected by means of junction lines with the nearest Post Office trunk wire exchanges. Where those exchanges are at Post Offices which are not always open the junction lines are extended to the nearest trunk wire exchange at which a constant service is given, but the control of the lines and of the traffic is not in the hands of the National Telephone Company.