WRECKED TELEPHONE SYSTEM

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 191, 8 May 1919, Page 8

WRECKED TELEPHONE SYSTEM

ONE OF THE FINEST IN EUROPE Amongst the results of the German occupation has been the destruction of one of'the finest telephone systems in Europe, and the public is now without telephones,' and will be for many months to come. A service is being .rebuilt at the rate of fourteen telephones a day, but Ministries and public services only aie being linked up for the present. The privation to the inhabitants of so busy, a city as Brussels was before the war can easily be imagined. There were then 18,000 "subscribers i on tho town exchange, telephones were everywhere, and' entered more' into tho habits of life even than in London.

When the Germans arrived in 1914 they demolished the three working exchanges, cut the wires, disconnected underground cables, while reserving enough material to construct a German-controlled exchangfc iu the basement of the principal telephone building near the Grand Sablons. All their administrative establishments, police,spios and their friends were 'linked up to this. So that the Belgians should realise that they had no telephones, over 7000 instru.monts were removed from private houses. •The switchboards at tho Hotel Metropole for -1-00 rooms, at the Grand for 200, tho General Post Office, tbeßanquoNationnlo —in fact, at all the large business and financial establishments—were taken away bodily, and probably sent to Germany, becauso an immense amount cf material has disappeared.

Fortunately 'when tho Germans left last November they had W time to removo their oiVn exchange. This was immediately taken over, and the Belgians linked their own people up and used it for six week* while they cleaned up their old buildings, which were left in a filthy state, and began to reconstruct the new system. On January 7 tho Administration issued the first list of subscribers—about 550, all official. By February 1 the number had come up to over 900. including many Senators and deputies, the principal newspapers, but there is not ti theatre, hotel, restaurant, ore cafe yet connected, and business establishments have nil to wait their turn. Tho Germans left enough material strewn about to enable tho work of reconstruction, lo be commenced as early as Novembor'2o. and there is sufficient to continue it without a break until, the arrival of wlint will be required from abroad. Tho damage done to the telephones in Brussels alone amounts to 2,000,000 francs. The inter-urban services wore also destroyed, with the exception of Antwerp, These are being re-established, <ind official communications are possible with Ghent. Liege, and many other towns. Lille has boon connected f up by way of Valenciennes, and talking to Paris is now a question of days.