§ Mr. F. Macleanasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what reductions have been made in recent years in the volume of Foreign Office telegrams to and from posts abroad; and what economies in staffs at home and abroad have resulted.
§ Mr. NuttingThe volume of telegraphing must clearly vary from time to time in 91W accordance with events and trends of policy, but the traffic is subjected to close control at the Foreign Office, where every effort is made to reduce the number of telegrams, to keep them short and to use alternative fast and suitable channels of communication. As a result of this control, the total volume of traffic has been reduced by about 50 per cent. since 1949. It is not practicable to reduce staffs in exact proportion to the traffic, but in the period mentioned the signal staff at the Foreign Office has been reduced by about 40 per cent., and staff economies have also been made at a number of posts abroad.