§ 39. Mr. Dribergasked the Postmaster-General what is his estimate of the extent to which faults in the telephone service are due to delays in delivery by those privately-owned companies which are in an oligopoly in the supply of equipment.
§ Mr. StonehouseI cannot say what proportion is directly due to delays in supply, because the statistics are not kept in that form. But the elimination of these delays will go a very long way towards removing congestion from the system and abolishing the waiting list.