THE CABLES AND THE STATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 203, 26 August 1909, Page 4

THE CABLES AND THE STATE.

Sir Sandford Fleming says truly that the All-Red cable system will materialise and that cheap cables will come within the range of practical politics as soon as ever public opinion has been educated up to the level of demanding them. The recent Press Conference at Home was one of the best opportunities the general public has yet enjoyed of discovering the true inwardness of the great cable problem, and one of the most remarkable features of the conference was the support secured by the suggestion for State-owned cables. Apparently it has only just begun to dawn upon the world at large that the quickest way of facilitating cable communication and cheapening cable charges is to withdraw the cables from the control 01 private companies and place them in the hands of the State. But it is characteristic of the progressive spirit which marks the recent development of British I Imperialism that the great majority of I the colonial delegates «t the Press Conference expresssd strong approval of the proposal to place the cables under a State department. It is true that the leading politicians and public officials at Home, true to their traditional policy of "laissez faire," have said and done little *o encourage this movement. Mr. Hennißer Heaton complains bitterly of the lack of sympathy displayed by the Imperial authorities toward the cause for which he has done so much. "For a quarter of a century I have watched the growth of an immense cable monopoly with enormously high charges to our colonies and dependencies, yet not one word has been spoken by a British Postmaster-General in favour of reducing the high cable rates. I have sat at great State cable conferences side by side with representatives of tire' Government of Great Britain, and'not one attempt was made by them to lessen the cost of cabling." But now at last there are signs that the British Government 13 reacting to the pressure of colonial opinion, and that some practical step may soon be taken to break down the great monopoly which enables the cable companies to penalise the Empire for the benefit of a few wealthy capitalists. That such a monopoly exists can easily be demonstrated. The leading cable companies in the world, as the " New Age' recently pointed cut, are governed by about half a dozen men. The virtual head of this great Trust is Sir John Pender, who is Managing Director of the Eastern Telegraph Co., the Eastern and South African Teleprapli Co., and the West African Telegraph Co. He is also Deputy Chairman of tho Western Telegraph Co., and Chairman of the West Coast of America Telegraph Co. Further, this same baronet is a Trustee of the Submarine Cables Trust, and a Director of the following telegraph and cable companies:—Spanish, Kastern JKxtension, Europe and Azores, Globe Trust, Pacific and European, Kiver Plate, and Direct United States. But Sir John Pender does not sustain these weighty responsibilities without sympathy and support on which he can depend. For his son, Dilt. J. C. Pender, is a Director of the Eastern Telegraph Co- and the (South African Telegraph Co., and his , brother, Sir James Vender, is a Director in the Globe Telegraph and Trust Co., the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Co., and the Direct United States Cable Co. We have quoted the worst illustration we can find of the monopolistic tendencies of these cable magnates, but the case of the Pender family is by no means unique. Viscount Middleton is Director in five cable companies, and Managing Director of a sixth, Sir John AVolfe Barry is Chairman of three cable companies, and Mr. B. J. Wolfe Barry is Director in a fourth. Mr. F -A. Johnston is Director in seven cable companies; and it is perhaps even more instructive to notice that Lord Balfour of Burleigh, who is Director in two great cable companies, was also chairman of the Parliamentary Committee which reported that "all proposals for a very large reduction in existing cable rates are quite impracticable." Well may Mr. Henniker Heaton ridicule the idea of "free competition " between these cable companies.' Tnese six or eight irresponsible men —as he has repeatedly shown—have the power to dictate what information shall be disseminated throughout the Empire; they have an absolute right to reject or delay any message they please; and on this ground alone he contends that an unanswerable case had been made out for State control. "Where exclusive possession of a right by an individual means a deprivation of essential or valuable privileges to the entire community, the State should assume the ownership in trust for the citizens." To most colonials this has come to appeal as a sound political principle; and in the case of the cable companies, it happens that the principle can very easily be applied. For the British Postmaster-General, as Mr. Henniker Heaton is never tired of repeating, ha,3 the cable companies entirely at his mercy. " He holds, and will always hold, the landing rights and inland transmission for Great Britain without which not -a single cable message could be sent by the monopolist companies." It would be thus easy for the Imperial Government flither .to force tho

companies to reduce their exorbitant charges or compel them, to surrender their right to the State at a fair commercial valuation; and to-day the signs ol the times are pointing steadily in the direction of the acquisition of the great submarine cables by the State.