TELEPHONE AMENITIES

Evening Star, Issue 22193, 22 November 1935, Page 11

TELEPHONE AMENITIES

PIQUANT FRENCH INNOVATION COMPREHENSIVE ‘MKFORMATWN BUREAU Pres* Association— By Telegraph— Copyright LONDON, November 21. (Received November 22, at 1,30 p.m.)] It is a coincidence that, simultaneously with a doctor's,letter to ‘ Th* Times ’ suggesting that telephone subscribers be permitted to dial ■ a,n SOS for fire and other emergency calls, thera comes, the announcement from Pari* that subscribers can call S V P (suggestive of a contraction of “ R.S.V.P.”), to get information from a special department on any topic, ranging from the size of the Budget deficit to th« nearest doctor, train and steamer timetables. If guests arrive unexpectedly' at dinner time this department will order, food and wine for the embar- / rassed housewife, or instead book her a table in a restaurant, and even tell her the table d’hote price. This innovation, which costs a frano per question, says ‘ The Times ’ in an editorial, provides one or more good reasons for going to Paris just to put a question to omniscience.