THE AUTOMATIC TELEPHONES.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The less undiscerning of your readers may be feeling that there was just a shade too much emphasis in the protesta- tions made on the eve of the General Election regarding the supply of 50,000 new automatic telephones for London. First we had the Post Office, hand on heart, affirming the • ll-British character of the " Liverpool firm " who are supply- ing them. Echoing the Post Office, the Chairman of the latter organization was good enough to chide me for an " inference from an article by an exuberant American journalist."
Now that we have re-entered an atmosphere of comparative tranquillity, I should like to say one word in reply. I do not, then, assert that all American journalists are not exuberant ; I do most firmly deny the suggestion that the writer of this particular article was an irresponsible person. While, as stated in my last letter to you, I originally read the American victory song in the Telephone Engineer of Chicago, I have since then made another interesting discovery. The article is practically a reprint of one which had already appeared in the Automatic Telephone, a journal published by the owners of the Strowger apparatus.
Let us, then, be definite. Is this " Liverpool firm " an independent British organization ; or is it to any extent controlled by the Automatic Telephone Company of America ? Should the latter theory be correct, that is to say, should our friends the " Liverpool firm " be, in fact, associated with a great American Trust, perhaps the Post Office authori- ties will tell us how much of the proceeds of this 11,000,000 contract must necessarily go to the United States.—I am,
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