asked the Postmaster-General what progress was made with the conversion of manual exchanges to automatic during 1965–66.

Ninety-five exchanges were converted to automatic working during the year, bringing the proportion of subscribers served by automatic exchanges to 94 per cent.

How many more manual exchanges remain to be converted to automatic working, and when will it be done?

There are 340 manual exchanges left, and they will all have gone by 1970.

Does the Postmaster-General realise that we fully appreciate the comfort he has derived from preparing the Answers to these six planted Questions on the telephone service but that, whatever good news they bring for the future, over large areas of the country people are driven absolutely mad by the poverty of the service?

The telephone service would be a lot better if there had been a bit more interest shown in it by the party opposite in years gone by.