§ Mr. GOLDMANasked the Postmaster-General whether, before finally deciding on the new telephone rates, he will submit his recommendations to a Select Committee together with the data on which he bases those recommendations?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELAs stated in my reply to the hon. Member for the Ramsey Division of Huntingdonshire on the 26th February, it is my intention to revise the rates for telephone service when the price to be paid for the National Telephone Company's system has been settled. If the revised rates are not generally acceptable, they will be the subject of public inquiry either by a Select Committee of this House or by some other Committee of a representative character. The body to whose examination they will be submitted will naturally be furnished with the data on which they are based.
§ Mr. GOLDMANasked the Postmaster-General whether he is continuing the commercial accounts for the telephone business acquired from the National Telephone Company, and what steps have been taken to amalgamate the accounts of the original Post Office telephone business and the acquired business; and whether separate capital and revenue costs of working the whole telephone business will be shown in a commercial form?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe answer to the first and third parts of the question is in the affirmative. Steps are being taken to amalgamate the accounts of the original Post Office telephone business and the acquired business.
§ Mr. GOLDMANasked the Postmaster-General, for what localities the provision of automatic telephone equipment is in operation, on order, or in contemplation1?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELNo automatic telephone equipment is yet in opera-752W tion in this country. Small exchanges are, however, being installed at Epsom and at the General Post Office, London. They are expected to be completed in April and May respectively. The installation of another exchange at Caterham is delayed by the failure of the contractors to supply the apparatus. Larger exchanges are contemplated for Leeds, Brighton and Portsmouth, but their provision must depend to a considerable extent on the possibility of obtaining the switching equipment at near dates from manufacturers in this country.
§ Sir JOHN SPEARasked the Postmaster-General if an agreement for an unlimited service within a telephone exchange area, renewed over a series of years during which period the exchange area has varied, is now an agreement for unlimited service within the present exchange area?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELI am afraid that I cannot answer this question without knowing the details of the agreement and the circumstances of the alteration of the area which the hon. Member has in mind. If he will give me some particulars of the case, I shall be happy to send him the information.
Captain MURRAYasked the Postmaster-General whether he will consider the advisability of causing to be entered in the trunk fees column of the account of fees for trunk and junction calls submitted to subscribers the name of the trunk exchange as well as the fee charged?
§ Mr. HERBERT SAMUELThe inclusion in the accounts in question of the name of the trunk exchanges concerned would give rise to a good deal of clerical work; and, as its omission has not been found to occasion inconvenience to subscribers, I do not think that the existing* practice calls for alteration. If at any time information as to the destination of particular trunk calls is desired it is furnished on application.