§ Lieut.-Colonel HILDERasked the Postmaster-General (1) in what respect have the circumstances changed to-day from those in existence when the Tilbury Telephone Exchange was first established by the United Telephone Company, who treated the Tilbury area as a part of the Metropolis for business purposes; is he aware that when an exchange was first established in the Tilbury area it was a part of the London system, and subscribers were invited to join expressly because it would give them a means of communication between their works, wharves, or other industrial premises in the City of London; seeing that this is a breach of the original contract, can he see his way to vary the new arrangements;
(2) what was the total number of local calls through the Tilbury Exchange during the financial year ended 5th April, 1921, and, during the same period, what was the total number of calls from the Tilbury Exchange to other parts of the old Metropolitan area; may a subscriber within the newly constituted 2101W outer circle of London talk to a subscriber distant nearly 15 miles from his exchange at a cost of only 1½d., whilst a subscriber attached to the Tilbury Exchange is now charged 9d. for a call to his office in the City of London, though the distance is only 20 miles; and whether he is prepared to reconsider this charge, which causes special indignation because it involves a breach of the old contracts which made Tilbury part of the Metropolitan area?
§ Mr. PEASEAt the time the Tilbury Exchange was first opened, telephone service was provided by telephone companies, operating each in a restricted area. The question of intercommunication between the various areas had not arisen, and consequently there was no scale of charges for inter-area or trunk calls, so that, when an exchange was opened by any one of the companies, the charge—usually a flat rate—in force in its area was applied to subscribers to the new exchange, irrespective of its situation. The number of local calls,i.e., calls made by subscribers connected with the Tilbury Exchange to other subscribers on the Tilbury Exchange, in the last financial year was approximately 140,000, and the number pf calls to subscribers in the other parts of the old Metropolitan area was approximately 560,000. The charges referred to by the hon. and gallant Member are correctly stated, but I would remind him that the 9d. fee enables a Tilbury subscriber to converse in some instances over a distance of nearly 30 miles, and that the concession, under which the area within a radius of five miles of Oxford Circus is treated as a point for measuring purposes, applies to all subscribers within 30 miles of the centre of London. I see no justification for giving telephone subscribers at Tilbury preferential rate as compared with subscribers connected with other exchanges a similar distance from the centre of London.