§ MR. JOHN CAMPBELLI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the fact that a recent contract for 150 silent telephone cabinets was given to Maple and Co., in preference to the old sub-contractors, he will give the figures of the various tenders, and state how many of the Maple cabinets have been delivered, and how many of them accepted, and how many rejected; and will he also state, in the case of a contract for 300 telephone boards given to the same firm, how many of these instruments have been delivered, how many accepted, and how many rejected.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINThe hon. Member is under some misapprehension. The contract recently made with Messrs. Maple and Co. was for fifty, not 150, Silence Cabinets, and cabinets such as these have in recent years been made, not by sub-contractors, but in the Post Office factory. All the firms who had ever made Silence Cabinets for the Post Office, and one or two firms who had made cabinets for the Office of Works, were invited to tender, and the tender of Messrs. 124 Maple and Co. was the lowest. I am not prepared to give the figures. The first cabinet, which was to be approved before the order was proceeded with, has been passed, and delivery of the whole is expected very shortly. The telephone boards mentioned by the hon. Member are not instruments, as he supposes, but merely little boards to hold the brackets on which a telephone rests. Two hundred and fifty, not 300, were ordered recently from Messrs. Maple and Co.; they have all been delivered, but it has been necessary to return them for a slight alteration. These boards also have previously been made in the Post Office factory.
§ MR. JOHN CAMPBELLMay I ask how many of these cabinets have been returned "for a slight alteration?"
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINI think all.