§ Major GLYNasked the Postmaster-General whether he will inquire into the existing regulations of some country telegraph offices regarding the passing of messages by telephone, not to the district 772W office thence to be sent by telegraph, but by trunk telephone calls to the nearest town or office of the addressee; and whether he will inquire into the question whether this custom, although restricted to a radius of 50 miles or so, delays the telegram and congests the telephone lines, thus preventing the use of such lines by local subscribers?
§ Sir W. MITCHELL-THOMSONThe practice of telephoning short-distance telegrams directly from the office of handing-in to the office of delivery is limited to cases in which those offices are within a radius of twenty miles of each other, and in which the telephone circuits can carry the traffic satisfactorily. This arrangement makes for acceleration by eliminating unnecessary telegraphic retransmissions at intermediate offices, and I am advised that its effect on the telephone traffic is negligible.