"TRYING TO CONNECT YOU ' 1 [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR]
Sm,—What makes our telephone service the worst in the world ? That, of course, is a rhetorical question. Personal .experience only tells me that it is worse than the Mexican, German and French, and a friend assures me that it could learn much from Rumania. This morning, for example, I wished to send a cable to New York. I rang 557. After listening to the ringing tone for three minutes, I dialled 0. I was told to hang on, and how I hung. After five minutes I put the receiver down, dialled 0 and began to expostulate. I was told that the tele- phonist who had taken my previous call was not there : what did I want ? 557. Another three minutes of silent waiting. I rang off and dialled 0 again. The operator was sorry : an emergency call had come through : would I hang on ? At the end of two minutes I heard the welcome voice of 557, only to be cut off before she could complete her introductory sentence, Contact was re-established, but not for long. I had just time to ask the rate for ordinary cables, when another voice informed me I was being put through—somewhere else, and silence descended on the telephone system. I got through to 0, a different 0, and told the whole Sad story—or as much of it as I could tell before she rang me off. Then at last, after twenty-one minutes, I found myself talking to 557, and even dictating the
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