§ Mr. ASTORasked the Postmaster-General whether the solicitor to the Post Office has put forward a claim that debts owing to the National Telephone Company have, on the transfer of the undertaking to the Post Office, become Crown debts, and so liable to preferential payment in the liquidation of a company; and, if so, whether he sanctions such a claim being put forward?
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr. Herbert Samuel)The solicitor to the Post Office has not put forward any claim that debts owing to the National Telephone Company have become Crown debts. But the circumstances in which claims arise are often complicated, and it may be that in some instances a preferential right of payment may arise in relation to a continuing contract.
§ Mr. HARRY LAWSONasked the Postmaster-General, whether he will move for or agree to the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the working of the telephone system here and abroad, and the best means of increasing its usefulness to the community?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELSuch an inquiry would necessarily be of a highly technical character and, as at present advised, I doubt whether it could profitably be undertaken by a Committee of this House. Officers of my Department frequently visit other countries in order to study the telephone systems there, and the late engineer-in-chief of the Post Office has just been appointed Special Commissioner to investigate inter alia the telephone systems of the Continent.
§ Mr. HARRY LAWSONIs there to be a Departmental inquiry at the same time?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELInquiries are continually going on as a matter of Departmental procedure. A considerable number of officers of my Department have been at one time or another in the United States, Sweden, Holland, and other countries to study telephone problems.