* MR, REESI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that inconvenience is caused at Carno and at other places in Central Wales in which the telegraph office is at the railway station, where telegrams are detained owing to the other occupations of the staff, and because preference is necessarily given to railway messages; and whether he will consider the advisability of having a telephone at the local post office in such cases, in order to expedite the delivery of telegrams.
§ THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. SYDNEY BUXTON, Tower Hamlets, Poplar)I am aware that inconvenience is caused at certain places in Central Wales by the delay of telegrams owing to their being dealt with at railway stations, and that such delay is attributable to the causes given by the hon. Member; but the local Postmaster is not aware that Carno is one of the places which suffers inconvenience on this account. In 1903 the residents in Carno asked for the extension of telegraph business to that office; and, as the probable business was small, the extension was offered under guarantee. The offer was not accepted, but I am still prepared to undertake the extension under guarantee. The terms are now more favourable to the guarantors, as, under the concession announced in April last, they would now be liable for one-third only, instead of one-half, of any deficiency.