HC Deb 12 February 1924 vol 169 cc754-5

There is another very important matter to which I have fallen heir—fallen heir to it in a rather inconvenient form. I refer to Imperial wireless. I believe that for about 12 years this matter has been under consideration. On the day that the late Government was defeated, a letter was written from the Post Office, the effect of which was to create an absolute and a complete deadlock. Therefore, with my right hon. Friend the Postmaster-General, we had to consider the whole matter do novo. If the Labour Government has any ambition at all, except to do sober, effective work, it has the ambition to try to do its work in a businesslike way, and as soon as we were faced with that difficulty, we appointed a small Committee to inquire into the whole situation. That Committee was appointed a week ago, and I hope that at the end of this week I am going to have a Report from it which will enable us to deal with the matter effectively at last. Papers and information will be made available for the House before the House is asked to implement what we shall propose as the way out of the difficulty.