§ Mr. WATTasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that the National Telephone Company have for years granted the free use of a telephone to each of the Glasgow infirmaries; whether the Corporation of Glasgow, when owners of a telephone service, granted a similar privilege to these institutions; whether his Department now proposes to charge rates which will be exceedingly onerous on the infirmaries; and whether, in view of the fact that the managers have difficulty in providing the funds for the carrying on of this philanthropic work, he will refrain from insisting on this charge until at least 1912, when the whole telephone system will be altered?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELI am aware that free telephone exchange lines were provided for certain hospitals by the Corporation of Glasgow. The service was continued by the Post Office when the corporation telephone system was purchased in 1906. The arrangement gives rise to 193 some legal difficulties, but in view of all the circumstances I have decided that it need not be disturbed for the present.