THE AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES FOR LONDON.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Stu—Apparently as an inference from an article by an exuberant American journalist, Mr. J. M.- Hogge, M.P., has made the statement in letters to many newspapers published in all parts of Great Britain that the London Telephone System is about to be equipped with 50,000 lines of Strowger automatic apparatus from Chicago, and he asks, Why should the Government spend in this way one million pounds " in employing American workmen on an essentially British job " ? In reply an official statement has been issued by the Post Office that the Strowger automatic apparatus to which he refers will be manufactured by a Liverpool firm (Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co., Ltd.) at their factory in Liver- pool. Agreements are being included between the Post Office and other firms for automatic exchanges in the London area, and in all cases the Post Office stipulates that the plant supplied shall be manufactured in Great Britain unless written authority from the Engineer-in-Chief to the Post Office has been previously obtained.
Mr. Hogge nevertheless states that he is still perplexed, and continues to air his perplexity in widespread letters to the Press instead of taking the simple course of applying to the Postmaster-General for a solution of his difficulties. The following statement may help to remove Mr. Hogge's perplexity :- Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co., Ltd., was founded in 1912, and it acquired by purchase the Liverpool factory of the British Insulated and Helsby Cable Co. It also acquired from America by purchase the existing and future patent rights of the Strowger automatic system for Great Britain and many other important countries, thus introducing in this country a new and valuable industry. Before the War it provided important automatic exchanges at Leeds and other British towns, and since the War its orders include automatic exchanges for Buenos Aires, Bombay and other important cities, for which the plant has been manufactured in this country by British labour.
Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which holds a contract for 50,000 lines, is a British company, with a British Board of Directors and under British management. Its staff is wholly British with the exception of four American engineers who are specialists in automatic telephony. The employees number about 1,800 and will be increased in the near future. The whole of the equipment will be manufac- tured in the company's factory at Liverpool, and the raw material will be British and bought from British manufac- turers. The wage bill will be British.
Automatic Electric Company of Chicago was the holder of world patents for the Strowger automatic system and has successfully developed that system during the last thirty years. Its system has been so universally adopted that of 1,000,000 automatic telephones in the world about 90 per cent. are Strowger. It was from that company that my company purchased the patent rights, and 1 am glad to say that in addition reciprocal arrangements exist between the two companies whereby technical knowledge, development and research are freely exchanged, to the great benefit of both companies and the public.
If Mr. Hogge would like to visit our Liverpool factory we should be glad to show him how well organized and efficiently equipped it is for the purpose of reducing British unemploy-
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