§ MR. A. SHORTasked the Postmaster-General whether his Department originally proposed to increase the telegraph charges for Press telegrams to 2s. 6d. per seventy-five words before 6 p.m. and 2s. 6d. per hundred words after 6 p.m., with an additional charge of 8d. for each address after the first; whether these proposed charges were actuated by a desire to place the transmission of news messages on a remunerative basis; whether he will state the reasons why these revised charges were postponed until 1st January, 1919, and why they were again postponed until the 1st January, 1920; whether the proposed scale of charges has now been reduced to 1s. per sixty words before 6 p.m. and 1s. per eighty words after 6 p.m., with 3d. for each additional copy of the first; whether he will lay the necessary Papers upon the Table of the House showing the loss of revenue which will occur as the result of his decision to introduce the lower scale of charges, together with the reasons for its adoption; 1836W and whether, in view of the immunity hitherto of the newspaper Press from any additional charges for the transmission of telegraph work, he will consider the advisability of reducing the telegraph rates to ordinary members of the public?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHThe higher charges referred to were proposed by the Retrenchment Committee, not by the Post Office. The recommendation was not accepted by the Government, the lower scale of increased rates referred to by the hon. Member having been adopted in its place and embodied in the Telegraph Act, l915. The Government decided to postpone the operation of those rates—which come into effect on the 1st January next— because it was thought undesirable to take any steps which might have restricted the dissemination of news during the period of the War. The amount by which the revenue from the lower Press rates will fall below the revenue anticipated from the higher rates proposed by the Retrenchment Committee is approximately £180,000 per annum. The rates for ordinary telegrams are not remunerative, and I see no prospect of their being reduced.
§ Mr. SHORTasked the Postmaster-General whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the whole of the Papers with regard to the negotiations between the Post Office and the Press Association with regard to their proposal to introduce their own apparatus for the transmission of news hitherto handled by the Post Office service; and whether the lines which will be leased to the Press Association are those formerly used by the Post Office for the transmission of the same work?
§ Mr. ILLINGWORTHI do not think that any useful purpose would be served by laying the Papers in question upon the Table, more especially as the arrangement is of an experimental nature. The matter was explained fully in my answers to the hon. Member for Nottingham on the 6th and 17th instant. As I then stated, the wires which will be allocated to the Press Association for the present experiment are spare.