§ 48. Mr. MACQUISTENasked the Prime Minister whether he is aware that the telephone service in the United Kingdom is inferior to that which was provided by the commercial company from which it was expropriated and very 764 much inferior to that provided by commercial concerns in America or in Sweden and Norway; and whether he will favourably consider retrocessing the telephones to an efficient private company, with limitation of tariff, that the service may be reconstructed under the advice of American or other organisers of efficient systems, so that the present service, which involves a loss to the State, may be replaced by a cheap and efficient system?
§ The POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Mr Illingworth)I have been aske5 to answer this question. I think the hon. Member will recognise that any comparison between the present telephone service and that afforded before the War, whether by a private company or otherwise, must be misleading. The present difficulties of the service are due to causes directly arising out of the War, such as the enforced suspension of the construction of new exchanges and lines and the withdrawal of skilled operators to other employments. A private company would have suffered from the same difficulties. In the United States there is at present an admitted deterioration of the telephone service owing to war conditions, and at the same time telephone rates have had to be increased to meet the general rise in the cost of labour and materials.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENWhy, when a Government Department takes up a commercial enterprise which, if it were a private concern, would go into bankruptcy, should it not be liquidated in the ordinary way and handed over to others?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI think that the telephone is not the only business, if I may call it so, which has gone through very severe difficulties owing to the strain of war conditions.
§ Mr. RAPERIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the telephone service in Norway and Sweden has been carried on by the Governments of these countries for a long time, with the exception of Stockholm, where there was a private service which was bought up by the Government about eighteen months ago?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI am afraid that I have no information.
§ Mr. MACQUISTENWill the right hon. Gentleman undertake to get some advice from Norway and Sweden, or get the Minister of Transport to take over the telephone and make it a success?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI will make a statement on the subject of the telephone on the Post Office Estimates when they come up, which I hope will be very soon.