Orders of the Day — Telephone Service.

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 31 March 1927.

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Photo of Lieut-Colonel Sir Gilbert Acland-Troyte Lieut-Colonel Sir Gilbert Acland-Troyte , Tiverton

I beg to move, to leave out from the word "That," to the end of the Question, and to add instead thereof the words this House regrets that the telephone service is not conducted by private enterprise, and considers that steps should be taken to provide improved postal and telephone facilities in rural areas. Before I deal with the terms of this Amendment, I wish to draw the attention of the House and of the Postmaster-General to a question in connection with the administration of the Post Office which I regard as one of great importance. I notice, from the last Return published, that the number of disabled ex-service men employed by the Post Office is smaller than the number employed in any of the other Government Departments, with the exception of the Admiralty. I know that in the case of the Admiralty there are special reasons, as we were told yesterday. But I hope the Postmaster-General will be able to give this matter favourable consideration, and to see that a greater number of ex-service men shall be employed by his Department. There are a great many jobs under his jurisdiction which can be done both by disabled ex-service men and by sound ex-service men. In the case of postmen, I believe the Postmaster-General employs 50 per cent. of ex-service men. I think that that proportion should be increased to 75 per cent., and I hope my right hon. Friend will be able to see his way to do this. I might enlarge on this question, but I am not sure whether I should be in order. I should like, however, to draw attention to it.

In what I propose to say on the Amendment, I hope the House will forgive me if I refer to certain specific cases which have occurred in my constituency, and as to which I should like the Postmaster-General to make inquiries. They are, in my opinion, not isolated cases, but cases typical of what is going on all over the country, and I think my right hon. Friend will see that, if he is able to put these cases right, he will be able to put right similar cases in other places. The cases may be of purely local interest, but as there are many other cases of the same sort, I think it is worth while my mentioning them. As regards the postal services, I do not think we have very much to complain of; on the whole, I think they are pretty good. We should, of course, like to see a considerable increase in the number of second posts, but I fully realise that, in country districts, the expense of increasing the number of places where second pasts are received would be too great. having regard to the value that would be got from them. I think, however, that the Postmaster-General might be able to extend the system by which a second post is delivered at rural offices, but not sent round to individual houses. In some cases the second post is sent to the post office, and people who wish to make sure of receiving their letters can send to the post office in the afternoon or evening and get them. If they do not send, the letters are delivered in the ordinary way the following morning. If this could be extended, it might be found to be well worth doing.

4.0 p.m.

Another slight difficulty from which we suffer is that in a great many places there is no post out between mid-day on Saturday and 4 or 5 o'clock on Monday afternoon. This is because the local postman is given a Saturday half-holiday, and it is right that this man should have a half-holiday. He is a very hard worked man. He often has to walk 12 or 15 miles in the day, and he is frequently away from home 12 hours or more. Therefore, if any man be entitled to a half-holiday the local postman most certainly deserves it. This difficulty of not being able to get our letters off on Saturday afternoon might be got over by employing some reliable young man with a motor bicycle to go round and collect the letters. I believe it would be possible to find some really reliable young men who own motor bicycles and who would be willing to do this work for some small payment, say 6d. per mile, and it would be of considerable advantage to us if it could be done.

We are getting now some little way from the War, but there are cases in my constituency where I know that the pre-war postal facilities have not yet been restored. It is quite time that those facilities were restored. I might mention one instance. In a district near Uffculme in pre-War days the post went out at 7 o'clock in the evening, but it now goes out at 5 o'clock. That means that a farmer who has been to market or to the county town on private or county business cannot get home again in time to post his letters, and therefore he loses a day's post. I hope that it will be possible to restore these facilities. In this same district, there is another difficulty which might very easily be adjusted. It is a matter of local adjustment. There has been correspondence going on now for over two years between the parish council and the local postal authorities on the subject, and nothing has been done. There is a group of houses and a farm that do not receive their letters until 11 o'clock in the morning, whereas two fields away, not more than 400 or £00 yards distant, another farm receive their letters at 7.30 in the morning. This is because in one ease the post comes from Burles-comb and in the other from Uffculme. That is a thing which could be easily adjusted by the local postal authorities by putting this group of houses into another postal area, and I hope that the Postmaster-General will see that it is done.

As my right hon. Friend knows, both the. postal and telephone services at Burles-comb are far from satisfactory. Our chief complaint, however, is not on the subject of the postal services, but on the subject of the telephone service. I believe that this House has never yet refused to vote any money required for the development of the telephone service. I believe that during the last four financial years the telephone service has produced a profit of £3,600,000, after allowing for depreciation and for interest on the money. I know that at the present time the House has voted the Postmaster-General a sum of £1,000,000 per month for the development of the telephone service. I am afraid that we in the country districts do not get our full share of that £1,000,000 per month. I am afraid it is used more for the development of the telephone service in the towns, and such things as the telephone service between here and America, which may be very desirable, but which does not benefit the people in the country districts very much. There is not the least doubt that it is really more important that the telephone service should be developed in the country districts than in the towns. The isolated country districts require these facilities more than people living in the towns, and, by increasing these facilities there and giving more telephone communication, you will encourage people to go and live in the country districts, which is a thing that everyone in this House desires to see.

Unfortunately, the telephone is a rich mans luxury, but it ought not to be so. It ought to be cheap, so that it could be placed within the reach of everybody. The best way of cheapening the telephone is by increasing the number of people who use it, and the best way of increasing the number of people who use it is by cheapening it. It is up to the Postmaster-General to start this circle by doing everything he can to reduce the telephone charges and to make them lower so as to bring the telephone within the means of all classes of the community. As an example, I might mention that in Canada the cost of the telephone is about one quarter what it is in this country and that, according to an answer which the Postmaster-General gave to the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Lamb) about a week ago, the number of users in Canada is four times the number of users in this country. That shows how by cheapening the rate you will be able to increase the number of users. The charges for the telephone are not only too high, but in many cases they are also unfair and want adjusting. I should like to take another case in my constituency. There is a place called Whimple. I do not suppose that many hon. Members have heard of Whimple, but I expect that most of them have drunk the cider which is made there and which is very good. The telephone charge from Whimple to Exeter, a distance of eight miles, is 5d., which is higher than the charge from another place not in my constituency, Honiton, which is 16 miles from Exeter, and the line from Honiton runs within quite a short distance of Whimple. That, obviously, is ridiculous, and requires to be adjusted. There is another grievance so far as farmers are concerned. There are two different rates, one for business houses, and one for private houses. Farmers are charged on the higher of these two rates. That is quite wrong, and I hope that the Postmaster-General will change it and charge them on the lower rate. That would mean a difference of 7s. 6d. per quarter, which is worth having, and it would encourage more farmers to take the telephone.

The trouble is that the postmaster-General is afraid to take risks in regard to the telephone. He fails to realise that the supply of the telephone will make the demand. He waits for the demand to come before he gives the supply. It ought to be the other way round. He ought to give the supply, because there is not the least doubt that the demand will follow. There is a rule to which he sticks too closely. He will not supply an exchange unless there are eight guaranteed subscribers. That rule ought to be relaxed in any place where there is a prospect of the telephone becoming a paying concern within a reasonable time. I know the case—I need not mention the name—of a place with 700 inhabitants, and he refuses to supply the telephone because there are only six guaranteed subscribers. If an exchange were placed there, it would serve not only that village but two other villages, giving a population of about 1,000. There are, on the average, 33 subscribers to every 1,000 people, so that if a telephone exchange were put there the probability is that in a short time, instead of six subscribers, there would be 33. That is the sort of enterprise which the tight hon. Gentleman ought to undertake. Any private concern would do it. Take the case of the multiple shops. They do not wait until they are certain of having a paying concern before they start in a village or town. They plant a shop in a place where they think it will become a paying concern in a few years time, and, until it does become a paying concern, the loss is borne by the other shops which are paying. If this can be done by a private concern, if this can be done by a dividend-producing concern, it ought to be done by a public service, which is not primarily run to produce money. The telephone service ought to be run for the convenience of the country and not with the idea of producing money and relieving other taxpayers.

The Post Office ought to advertise its wares, and it ought to advertise them in and attractive manner. At the present time, if you ask for the telephone or how it can be got, you are given a form which explains it all but it takes you about half-an-hour before you can understand what it means, and it takes you another half-hour to work out a complicated sum to find out how much it will cost you, and then probably you are wrong. It ought to be put quite simply and clearly, so that any farmer or anybody who wants the telephone can see at once the advantage he would get and see also what it would be likely to cost him. Anyone who applies for the telephone in a new undeveloped district ought to be given every encouragement. It would be worth while to give the pioneers of the telephone in a new undeveloped district preferential treatment by allowing them to have it cheaper for a few years. Such applicants ought to be encouraged in every possible way.

The best advertisement which the telephone or any business can have is that it should have a thoroughly satisfied number of clients, and any new man applying for the telephone in an undeveloped district ought to be used as a decoy duck. At the present time, so many difficulties and complications are put in his way that, instead of him acting as a decoy duck, he acts as a scarecrow, and discourages other possible applicants. That is not the right system on which to develop the telephone. The fact that the telephone can be extended by means of ordinary commercial methods was shown very clearly by what happened at the Ideal Homes Exhibition a short time ago. The Telephone Development Association had a room there is order to encourage the use of the telephone, and, as a result, 115 people signed agreements to take the telephone and 230 people in addition left their names and addresses in order to be interviewed by Post Office officials with a view to taking it. That shows how by a little careful advertising the use of the telephone can be extended.

I should like to see an extension of the system by which private lines can be put on to places where there is at present a call office. In some places where there is a call office, it is possible for what I believe is called a single subscriber exchange to be formed. It means that there is a sort of small exchange formed in the village in which the call office exists, and it is run by the post mistress of the village and can be easily run by her. This is only possible when a village is on a circuit by itself. In some cases there are five or six villages on the same circuit, and it cannot be done. I believe that without any great expense it would be possible to put a large number of these villages on a. single circuit, and the extra expense would be more than paid for by the three or four subscribers who would take private lines from these local call offices.

The Postmaster-General ought to aim at trying to get 'exchanges in as many villages as possible. He ought to aim at getting call offices in practically every village and at practically every railway station. It is of very great importance to farmers that they should be able to communicate quickly with railway stations, and it would also be of considerable advantage to the railway companies, because it would mean in many cases that they would get their trucks cleared 24 or even 48 hours earlier than they do at present. It would save delay, as very often the post arrives too late for the farmer to send to the station the same day he receives the letter, whereas if he used the telephone he could send off the same day. In respect to the carriage of live stock, it would often save him going to the station, perhaps a considerable distance, two or three times in the same day to meet the train on which he hopes it will arrive, I hope the right hon. Gentleman will do all he possibly can to make call offices available at as many stations as possible and at any rate every station at which there is an exchange in the neighbouring town.

One slight trouble about village call offices is that there is no privacy. The call telephone is probably put in a village shop or the post office. In many cases there is no room in the office for a private box to be installed but it would not cost a very great deal to put a kiosk just outside in which you could telephone with comparative privacy. In my own post office, there is a private box but there are two telephones, one inside the box and the other outside. The one inside the box is supposed to be reserved for the use of the post-mistress and the one outside is for the public. If it is necessary to have two instruments in one post office the public ought to have the advantage of using the one which is in comparative privacy. I hope the right hon. Gentleman will secure as much privacy as he can in call offices.

In conclusion, may I say that I am sure he wishes to improve the telephone and postal services in our villages in every way he can and I hope he will be able to do more than he has done. I should like to thank him and the Assistant Postmaster-General and the Parliamentary Private Secretary for the very kind way in which they have met every case I have put before them. No one could have met me in a better or more helpful way than they have done. I can assure the right hon. Gentleman that this question of the telephone service in country districts is causing a great deal of interest. People are beginning to want to have the use of the telephone, and if he will hasten the supply of call offices and exchanges in the villages he will receive the gratitude of the people who live in the country. Money so expended will not be wasted. It will be an investment, and a good one, which will bring back a reasonable return. I hope he will be able to tell us he is going to go forward with a steady progressive development in country districts, and that we shall see a great improvement in a very short time, and I hope he will not allow himself to be handicapped by the Treasury.