CABLES AND RADIO.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 126, 9 March 1935, Page 5

CABLES AND RADIO.

CHEAPER RATES WANTED. AUSTRALIA'S! PROTEST. CAPE TOWN, February 6. Mr Delamore McCay, chairman of the Australian delegation to the Press Conference, made a strong plea for a . campaign in favour- 0? cheaper cable and wireless rates for press purposes, when the conference met in its,'first technical session, the subject of Imperial communications being under dis--cussion.

. Mr Mopay made a strong attack on the capital structure and presentposition of Imperial and International Limite/l, the great merger company formed in* 1929 in ;oi-der to meet the position of the: cable companies, caused by the competition >of beam wireless. ,- .' * , .- • •.

The : capital of the holding company, said Mr McCay, was fixed at '£52,000,000, and cable users, if they did not actually have to put up those millions were aske"d to maintain that amount of capital. More than £11,000,000 of the total capital represented "goodwill and intangible assets." ' '■' ; ; '>'-*

"Wenever read in the history books that George Stephenson, Limited, was capitalised on the basis of the. money sunk in stage coaches," Mr McCay declared. .

, It was claimed that the merger was necessary to prevent foreign nations ■ from seeking to control communica- . ■ tions, and in order to maintain .secret ,' strategic channels of communication- |?, Mr McCay urged that the "report of the -Greene Committee appointed _iii ' 1931 should he published, and that there should be a further review of the position to bring the information up to date. Dealing with the question el 1 ..the,; strategic value of cables, Mr, McCay said that wireless engineers made;definite claims about their systems that \ ' they could not be tapped, and that ithe wireless could not be cut ; Tn- : 30; far as the cables were required for • strategic purposes, lie contended, ,it was grossly unfair to leyy the cost , on telegraph users. "•" Mr McCay.also asked why it should cost more to send a beam messag;; from England to Australia than to Other Dominions. The plant at both ends is substantially the same, he. pointed out, and the running ~osts 'cannot- materially differ.. ...k / ■: ' The speaker urged the utilisation of vfhe surplus capacity of the present Empire telegraph communications by... the inauguration of a low deferred press rate of one penny a word from England to Australia, and ■ also between the Dominions. Failing a scheme of this kind, he said, Australian newspapers undoubtedly would turn to the air mails to supplement press telegrams ; -