39. Mr. Andersonasked the Postmaster-General whether the present production of Post Office supplies is sufficient to meet promptly the needs in all departments of the Post Office; why orders are not executed to time; and why factories cannot be established in the Special Areas to meet the increased requirements of the Post Office service?
§ Major TryonThere is no difficulty in obtaining Post Office supplies save in the case of telephone plant. The resources of the telephone manufacturing industry in this country were more than ample to meet the requirements of the Post Office until the abnormal increase in the demand for telephone service following on the recent successive reductions in rates. The industry has responded with energy and enterprise to the sudden increase in the demands on it, and I am satisfied that the steps which have been taken and are being taken by the manufacturers to meet the exceptional conditions, in particular by increasing the output capacity of existing works, will suffice for the purpose in view.
Mr. AndersonWill the measures of which the Postmaster-General speaks be sufficient to meet the early needs of Post Office requirements? If not, will he not consider establishing factories in Special Areas to meet them?
§ Major TryonI do not think that it would be advisable to build permanent factories to meet temporary emergencies, but we are training some hundreds of men a year from the distressed areas for employment in our engineering department.