asked the Assistant Postmaster-General when Mrs. Haddon, 268, Essex Road, who has been waiting for a telephone for four years, may expect to receive one.

I regret that a date cannot at present be given. A new cable is required, but because of many urgent commitments elsewhere, and the general limitation on capital development, it is not possible to undertake this work at present.

Does the hon. Gentleman realise that four years is a very long time to wait? Will he do his best to expedite this case, about which there are special circumstances?

Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be able to put on the telephone immediately all those who have been waiting four years or more.

On a point of order. Is it not an abuse of Question time to put a Question like No. 35 down, considering that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been waiting more than four years?

Further to that point of order. Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that Questions of this type were repeatedly put down to his predecessor, and that, if any abuse has occurred, it occurred in those days?

In answer to the point of order, the Question is in order. There may well have been special circumstances about this case of which I am unaware.