§ 68. Sir W. Smithersasked the Assistant Postmaster-General if, in order to earn more he will arrange for cheap rate telephone calls from 7 p.m. till 9 a.m., and for cheap rate all night telegram service on the lines of similar services rendered to the public in Ireland.
§ Mr. GammansThe arrangement suggested by my hon. Friend would not, I fear, earn the Post Office more money, but would result in an estimated loss of the order of £100,000 a year, and possibly a good deal more. If the time for cheap calls were put back from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., there would be created a peak traffic period which would need more staffs at the exchanges for uneconomic periods. Experience has shown that an extension of cheap calls up to 9 a.m. is not likely to attract a great volume of additional traffic and the arrangement therefore would be bound to lead to loss of revenue.
The telegraph service is now running at an annual loss of over £4 million, and, 209W therefore, any tariff concessions such as my hon. Friend recommends are clearly impossible.