Communications In Empire Described As “Disgraceful”

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1950, Page 3

Communications In Empire Described As “Disgraceful”

LONDON, December 28 (Rec. 11 a.m.). —Sea, air and radio communications within the Empire were described by the Evening Standard today as disgraceful. In an editorial, the newspaper says that for the last two months it has been increasingly difficult, and sometimes impossible, to send news telegrams from Australia and New Zealand to Britain. “Cable and Wireless blame sunspots. They omit to mention that since the Post Office took them over as a nationalised concern, there has been hopeless understaffing and continual labour troubles arising from the substitution of inadequate Post Office rates of pay. Yet the first balance sheet issued by this nationalised concern last August showed a net profit before taxation of £1,895,509.” Empire communications were at a disadvantage compared with America, France and Belgium. American magazines in large numbers were on the Australian and New Zealand newstands much sooner than British periodicals, says the Evening Standard.

“When members of Parliament reassemble they should explain to the sleepy heads of the Post Office and the British Overseas Airways Corporation that the age of the semaphore is dead.”