§ Viscount SANDONasked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury if he can give a table showing how many telegrams, cables, and wireless messages, taken together, were sent, and how many received, by the Foreign Office and Colonial Office, respectively, during each year from 1902 to 1922, inclusive, to and from foreign countries, and to and from the Dominions and Colonies taken together; what was in each case the total cost and average cost per message; and if he will state for each year the average number of such messages both inward and outward per day, and the average cost per day?
§ Major BOYD-CARPENTERI am afraid that I am unable to give all the information asked for. As regards the Colonial Office, the numbers of telegrams received and sent during the 21 years in question and the daily averages are as follow:
Year. Telegrams received. Daily average. Telegrams sent. Daily average. 1902 4,629 12.7 4,429 12.1 1903 3,255 8.9 2,812 7.7 1904 2,869 7.8 2,788 7.6 1905 3,030 8.3 2,659 7.3 1906 3,500 9.6 2,729 7.5 1907 3,048 8.4 2,536 6.9 1908 3,152 8.6 2,672 7.3 1909 2,818 7.7 2,537 6.9 1910 3,537 9.7 3,383 9.2 1911 3,295 9.0 3,256 8.9 1912 2,981 8.2 2,809 7.7 1913 3,207 8.8 3,299 9.0 1914 6,637 18.2 10,309 28.2 1915 8,651 23.7 17,237 41.7 1916 8,114 22.2 10,412 28.4 1917 10,671 29.2 11,821 32.6 1918 11,945 32.7 11,691 32.0 1919 10,525 28.8 12,196 33.4 1920 8,437 23.0 9,083 24.8 1921 7,504 20.6 7,808 21.4 1922 7,191 19.7 6,719 18.4 No figures are available as to the cost of telegrams received, since such telegrams are paid for by the several Dominion or Colonial Governments who send them. The total sums charged to the Colonial Services Vote for telegrams during the financial years 1901–2 to 1922–23 are as follows: 1644W
Expenditure on Telegrams, 1901–1902 to 1922–1923. Year. Amount. £ 1901–2 13,949 1902–3 19,738 1903–4 8,603 1904–5 8,827 1905–6 8,030 1906–7 9,065 1907–8 6,869 1908–9 8,126 1909–10 6,821 1910–11 9,842 1911–12 7,602 1912–13 6,931 1913–14 6,554 1914–15 36,370 1915–16 45,269 1916–17 24,888 1917–18 32,261 1918–19 49,841 1919–20 28,631 1920–21 21,977 1921–22 20,212 1922–23 (approximate) 10,500 Owing to the fact that these figures cover the financial years and not the calendar years it is not possible to give the statistics of average cost asked for.
As regards the Foreign Office, the following table shows the cost of telegrams sent by and received at the Foreign Office during the following years:
1645W
£ 1902–3 50,763 1903–4 47,372 1904–5 42,996 1905–6 41,028 1906–7 32,182 1907–8 32,570 1908–9 36,680 1909–10 41,340 1910–11 33,155 1911–12 43,868 1912–13 42,459 1913–14 41,119 1914–15 239,787 1915–16 299,617 1916–17 261,773 1917–18 304,105 1918–19 384,775 1919–20 226,341 1920–21 132,818 1921–22 113,549 It is impossible to give the number of telegrams sent by and to the Foreign Office over the period in question, as, up to the last few years, telegrams were not entered separately but included in the general correspondence registers of the Department.
While it would be possible to ascertain the numbers for the years since the date when telegrams were registered separately for each of the overseas posts (between 300 and 400) controlled by the Foreign Office, the amount of clerical labour which would be involved in the production of the figures could not in my opinion, be justified.