The contention that the public interest demanded a great increase in the number of telegraph offices, Mr. Scudamore supported by citing the number of offices in Belgium and France. In the former country there were upward of 125 telegraph offices which despatched less than one telegram a day. In fact, some offices despatched less than one a month. The Belgium Government, in figuring the cost of the Telegraph Department, charged that Department nothing whatever for office rent, or for fire, light and office fittings; nor did it charge the smaller offices anything for the time given by the State Railway employees and the postal employees to the Telegraph Department. In France there were 301 telegraph offices that took in less than $40 a year; 179 offices that took in from $40 to $100; and 185 offices that took in from $100 to $200. Mr. Scudamore over and again assured the Parliamentary Select Committee of 1868 that the telegraphs in the hands of the State would be self-supporting from the start, and that ultimately they would be a considerable source of revenue. But he supported his indictment of the telegraph companies of the United Kingdom by drawing upon the experience of the State telegraphs of Belgium, Switzerland, and France, under very low rates on inland telegrams, as distinguished from telegrams in transit, or telegrams to and from foreign countries. In taking that course, Mr. Scudamore ignored the fact that the inland rates in question were not remunerative. [Sidenote: _Belgium's Experience_] The Belgium State telegraphs had been opened in 1850. In the years 1850 to 1856, they had earned, upon an average, 36.8 per cent. a year upon their cost. In the period 1857 to 1862, they had earned, upon an average, 24.3 per cent. In 1863 to 1865, the annual earnings fell to an average of 13.5 per cent.; and in 1866 to 1869, they reached an average of 2.8 per cent. only. The reasons for that rapid and steady decline of the net earnings were: the opening of relatively unprofitable lines and offices; increases in wages which the Government could not withhold; a slackening in the rate of growth of the profits on the so-called foreign messages and transit messages; and a rapid increase in the losses upon the inland messages, which were carried at low rates for the purpose of stimulating traffic.