§ Mr. BOTTOMLEYI beg to ask the Prime Minister a question of which I Lave given him private notice, namely; Whether he is aware that the Government is proposing to instal in England and in Egypt a wireless system based upon obsolete patterns which are being discarded by other countries, and whether before committing the country to what may be wasteful expenditure of money he will have special inquiries made into the matter?
§ Mr. PEASEI have been asked to answer this question. The wireless stations which are being provided in England and Egypt are not of an obsolete pattern. The system decided on has only been adopted after full inquiry. The leading Government experts have been consulted and the best independent advice has been obtained. I am informed that stations in France and Italy, which employ a similar 1638 system, have been extremely successful in communicating with the United States. The United States Government have one station equipped with the Alexanders on alternator, and the French are installing the Latour alternator at certain stations; but I am informed that it is not proposed to dispense with the arc system in either case. The Government are advised that neither the American nor the French alternator has obtained such a degree of development as to justify its employment with the Oxford and Cairo stations, which it is proposed to complete without delay.
§ Mr. BOTTOMLEYHave these things long been discarded by the Marconi Company as useless and ineffective, and is it a fact that the engineers constructing the stations have never had the remotest experience in long-distance wireless telegraphy?
§ Mr. PEASEI cannot answer in regard to the experience of the engineers, but this has been adopted after very full inquiry by various experts and after having outside evidence.