§ Mr. Asshetonasked the Assistant Postmaster-General if lie will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a detailed statement showing the overseas telephone facilities which are now available to private subscribers; and, in particular, whether calls can be booked for a fixed time.
§ Mr. Burke:Telephone service with the following countries is available to all subscribers in Great Britain and Northern Ireland: Belgium, Denmark, France, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Ceylon, Cuba, Egypt, India, Kenya, Mexico, Newfoundland, New Zealand, 493W Palestine, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, South Africa (including South West Africa), the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (Khartoum and Omdurman only), Tanganyika, Uganda, and the United States of America.
In the Anglo-Continental services fixed time calls cannot yet be offered owing to the shortage of landline circuits on the Continent. The facility will, however, be reinstated as soon as conditions permit.
The services with the extra-European countries are all radio-telephone services and if the calling subscriber states the time, during the hours of service, at which he wishes to speak, every effort is made to complete the call at the time specified. The completion of the call is dependent on, inter alia, the availability of the distant party and the radio conditions existing at the time, and no guarantee can, therefore, be given that a particular call will mature at the time required. No extra charge is in any case payable.