§ SIR EDWARD SASSOONI beg to ask the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the proposal to abrogate Clause 8 of the Postal Convention would inflict a serious loss on the commercial community by rendering obsolete codes prepared at considerable cost; and whether he will instruct the British delegate to offer strenuous resistance to any whittling away of the right to use invented pronounceable words enjoyed for many years past without question.
§ MR. SYDNEY BUXTONNo proposal has been made to abrogate the right of sending artificial pronounceable combinations in code telegrams given by Article VIII. of the International Telegraph Regulations, to which I understand the hon. Member to refer, and certainly no such proposal, if made, would be supported by, the British delegates at the International Telegraph Conference at Lisbon. It is, I think, desirable for 1408 practical reasons that the condition as to pronounceability should be somewhat more clearly defined, but there is no intention of adopting other than a generous interpretation which would cover the great bulk of the codes in use.