§ Mr. LAMBasked the Postmaster-General whether he is aware that a fire occurred in the morning of 5th June on the farm of Mr. E. Skinner, of Sutton St. James, Wisbech, and that at 1.25 a.m. Mr. Skinner's son endeavoured to call the Holbeach fire brigade from the house of the nearest telephone subscriber who had paid for the right of night calls, namely, Mr. F. Musk, of Sutton St. James, but that at 2.35 a.m. he had to abandon the attempt to get the exchange; that as a result of this failure Mr. Skinner, junior, had to cycle to Holbeach to call the brigade with the result that 1½ hours were lost, during which period the whole of Mr. Skinner's yard was burnt out, including produce, implements, stock, and all the buildings except one: that a similar occurence took place a few months ago in connection with a previous fire the village when unavailing attempts were made to put a call through to the fire brigade from the premises of Mr. R. W. Rose, of Sutton St. James, who also pays for night service, and a delay of over an hour was caused by the failure in this case; if he will state whether the staff at the exchange concerned are paid on a weekly basis, on an hourly basis, or by the number of effective cells handled; whether he is aware that a telegram addressed, at, 8.10 a.m., to the Mr. Skinner referred to in the first part of this question at an 1791W address 35 miles away by road from his farm was not delivered until 10.55 a.m., so that when Mr. Skinner arrived at his farm the assessor had partly completed his work and Mr. Skinner was involved in direct financial loss in consequence; and what steps he proposes to take in regard to these matters in view of the public concern in the district?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONThe reports on this matter show that the party-line night circuit from Sutton St. James to Wisbech was tested at 8 p.m. on the night of the fire and found to be in good order. About 9.40 p.m. a permanent signal was received at Wisbech, the effect of which was to prevent receipt of calling signals from individual Sutton St. James subscribers. The fault may have been due to any one of a number of causes, e.g. branches being blown into contact with the circuit, or a subscriber leaving his receiver off the rest. The fault still existed at 6.30 a.m. on the 5th instant, but no definite cause could be found by the engineers called in to deal with the trouble, which, for no evident reason, abated and has not since recurred. There is no record of a previous similar occurrence. The remuneration of the operator doing the night work at Wisbech is based partly on hours of service and partly on calls dealt with. I am having inquiries made regarding the treatment of the telegram referred to, and I will write to the hon. Member.