§ 55. Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs what was the nature of the consultations with the Commonwealth Secretariat and with individual Commonwealth countries before he announced increased charges for Press rates on cables to all parts of the Commonwealth.
§ Mr. George ThomasThe relevant inter-Commonwealth organisation—the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board—as long ago as 1954, recommended an increase from the special wartime rate of 1d. a word to 3d. a word, as compared with the pre-war rate of 2¼d. a word. This recommendation was subsequently endorsed by a Commonwealth Telecommunications Conference in 1958. More recently, all Commonwealth Governments were consulted through diplomatic channels and were subsequently informed of the British Government's intention to increase the rates and the reasons for so doing. None demurred. No neces-60W sity for consultations through the Commonwealth Secretariat therefore arose.
The increased rate still involves a large subsidy.