asked the Postmaster-General whether he will investigate the general complaints regarding the inefficiency of the Thornton Heath telephone exchange, made both by trades-people and private subscribers, and take the necessary steps to ensure the efficiency of this exchange in future?

The records show that there have been very few complaints of the working of the Thorton Heath Exchange; and recent investigations show that this exchange compares favourably with London exchanges generally.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the majority of these complaints never reach headquarters? May I ask, for my own benefit, as I happen to be a subscriber, whether he will obtain from that exchange a list of their wrong numbers?

We have difficulties not only with wrong numbers, but sometimes with the subscribers. The hon. Member has suggested that these matters are not inquired into at headquarters. I can assure him that I, personally, inquired into his complaints, and I found that in one case he made a complaint that he could not get through from a distance to his own house, but when the Post Office inquired on the spot, they found the reason that he could not get through to his own house was that there was nobody in it.

May I say that there is always somebody in my house?