§ Mr. D. G. SOMERVILLEasked the Postmaster-General whether, seeing that the substitution of automatic telephones for telephones worked on the light system has involved the changes of numbers and exchanges to subscribers, he can give an assurance that these numbers and exchanges will not again be altered in the near future should there be a large extension in the use of the telephone?
§ Mr. LEES-SMITHChanges of subscribers' numbers, which are made from time to time as the service grows and new exchanges become necessary, could only be avoided by very large and uneconomical expenditure on line and other plant. But, subject to these considerations, every care is taken to reduce number changes to a minimum, and, in par- 623W ticular, to avoid a second change of number for any given subscriber within a relatively short space of time.