WIRELESS CONTRACTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1805, 18 July 1913, Page 7

WIRELESS CONTRACTS.

HEATED DEBATE IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT. By Telograph—Preni Aesoclatlon—Copyright (Rec. July 18, 0.15 a.m.) London, July 17. In tho House of Commons to-day, tho Hon. W. E. Guinness (Unionist) raised a heated but desultory debate upon all the phases of the Marconi contract. . Major Archer-Shoo (Unionist) pointed out that America had given priority to ■tho Poulsen system over all others, after a practical test of that system. The speaker appealed to the Ministerialists not to maintajn a running fire of interruption, but to give members a chance. (Opposition cheers.) Lord Robert Cecil (Unionist) said that tho only question was: Ought the Government to givo the contract to tho Marconi Company without competition, or ought they to invite competitive tenders. Sir Herbert Samuel (Postmaster-Gen-eral), in reply, said that the Government relied upon the results of tho official inquiry with regard to long-distance wireless. He also commuuicated to tho House the opinions received that day from the "Engirieer-in-Chief of the Post Office, tho Inspector of Wireless Telegraphy (formerly attached to the Admiralty, and now at the Post Office), tho president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and Lord Parker, all of whom declared that it would not be advisable to invite Poulsen or Goldschmidt tenders at the present moment. Mr. Samuel pleaded the urgency of the matter from the point of view of the strategical and commercial necessities of the case. Mr. Austen Chamberlain (Unionist) replied that the Post Office had not sufficiently realised that it was master of the situation. Instead of entering into a contract ho would prefer rome delay, otherwise tho Department itself ought to execute the work.