§ Sir W. DAVISONasked the Postmaster-General on what grounds he refuses to inform telephone subscribers as to the state of their accounts when demanding payments of further deposits in respect of calls, especially having regard to his statement that no charges are ever made for ineffective calls; and if he will say what additional expense would thereby be occasioned to the State, seeing that the information required must already have been ascertained by the Telephone Department before the demand for payment of a further deposit could be made?
§ Mr. PEASESubscribers are asked for additional prepayments hi respect of local telephone calls on estimates of their probable user during the next quarter of the1086W rental year. Any additional information required by subscribers is furnished on request, but inquiries are not numerous, and I do not think that the considerable amount of work involved in furnishing in advance a full statement of account with each request for a further payment would be justified, although it would be difficult without experience to state the full cost of such an arrangement. I am, however, considering whether any additional information likely to be useful to subscribers could be given without disproportionate expense, and I will write to the hon. Member on the subject.