The form of the licences for municipalities, among other conditions, contained provisions designed to secure for the public an efficient and cheap service. It was provided that the plant should be constructed in accordance with specifications prepared by the Postmaster-General, no preferential treatment should be allowed to any subscriber, the charges made should be within certain specified limits, neither the licence nor any part of the plant of the licencee should be assigned to or amalgamated with the business of any other licencee, and that the licence might be terminated if an exchange system were not established within two years. The provisions of the agreement of 1896 which secured coöperation between the Post Office and the National Company and combined the telephone with the telegraph and postal services were also introduced into the municipal licences. The municipalities were bound to give intercommunication between their exchanges and any established by the Postmaster-General, and terminal charges for trunk-wire communications between the exchange subscribers of any other system and those of the local authority were forbidden. About sixty local authorities made enquiries with a view to taking out licences, but only thirteen licences were accepted. That of Tunbridge Wells was surrendered in 1903, owing to an agreement arrived at between the National Telephone Company and the corporation, the municipal telephones not having proved a success.[835] In the case of seven others the licences were surrendered or cancelled. The following corporations held licences in 1905:-- Hull licence terminating 31st December, 1911 Glasgow 1913 Swansea 1920 Brighton 30th April, 1926 Portsmouth 1926 [835] _Parl. Deb._, 4th ser., cxxiv, coll. 781-82; cxv, col. 841; cxvi, coll. 915-17.