§ MR. PLATT-HIGGINS (Salford, N.)To ask the Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that expense is incurred by officers and soldiers of the Army serving on foreign stations when cable communication is necessary with their relatives at home, or vice versâ, for want of a recognised telegraphic cable code; and, if so, whether arrangements can be made for every commanding officer stationed abroad to have a word registered as his code address, and for such commanding officer to be supplied with a code of the cable company which serves his station, or of a new code prepared expressly, with a view to lessen the cost of private messages to and from officers and soldiers serving abroad.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Brodrick.) As regards code addresses, a large number of official code addresses are already registered by the Post Office, and I will inquire whether these can be extended in the direction suggested. As regards the messages, it should be remembered that there are several code books, as the Unicode and A B C, of which officers can avail themselves by arrangement with their relatives.