The Acukland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1926. CANADA AND THE CABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 43, 20 February 1926, Page 8

The Acukland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1926. CANADA AND THE CABLE.

i For the cmtse that lack* auUttanoe, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the gpod that we can do.

The refusal of Canada—or, more •accurately, of the Canadian PostmaeterGeneral agree to the duplication of the Pacific cable has created an interesting and rather painful situation-on the Pacific Cable Board. Britain, Australia, and New Zealand agree about the proposed duplication, .but Canada has rejected the scheme, or at least is pre.pared to accept it only in an incomplete and inadequate form. According to the Canadian Postmaster-General, the Dominion is agreeable to the duplication of the line between Fanning Island and Honolulu, and this is all that the promised to support. But as this partial duplication would certainly not meet the difficulties of the case by talcing the pressure of business off the rest of this overloaded line, and it would at the same time neutralise nearly all the benefits conferred on us by the Pacific cable as an Imperial means of communication, it- is very difficult to understand Mr. Murphy's line of argument; and we are inclined to agree with the well-informed London critic who "doe 3 not believe that it represents the view of the Canadian Cabinet or the Canadian public." A great deal of light may be thrown upon the whole question—though not on Canada's attitude-r-by a brief reference to tfce circumstances under which this co-operative Imperial enterprise was first undertaken. Some thirty years ago, when the agitation for a Pacific cable was being started, the promoters declared that they had two principle objects in view. One was to break down the monopoly then held for the transmission of telegraphic news between Britain and her Australasian possessions by the Eastern Extension Cable Company and its allies—a monopoly which they exploited to the detriment of England and the overseas Dominions' as well. But quite apart from the need "for cheaper cables and more rapid and efficient means for tLe distribution of news, the strongest argument in favour of the Pacific cable was that it would supply for the whole Empire an All-Red line of communication, of which every section would be under direct British control. The value of the All-Red route in a great national crisis was well illus* trated during the decisive stages of tie Great War. But. apart from-the possible recurrence of such dangers, it must be admitted'that for commercial purposes and in regard to Imperial administration it is a matter of vital importance to Britain and her dependencies that they have the main routes of communication throughout the Empire entirely under their own supervision and in their own hands. 'Yet after the cable has been laid and worked for £wenty years Canada now proposes to sacrifice these benefits and advantages for wholly inadequate reasons. The most obvious objections to the arguments put forward by Mr. Murphywere discussed briefly in a recent cable message from London by a tsritic who is said to be thoroughly/conversant wjtb, the whole history of the d'ispnte. .If the Fanning Island-Hpnolwm section* of the is duplicated, though this would cost much less thten the duplication of tLe whole line, ft would mean tha,t Australian messages accumulated at Honolulu could reach Canada only thfough transmission by American land lines. This ttouH put the United St»tes

"astride the AU-Eed route," and would not only, permit the, American companies to dictate their own terms to the Empire in regard to the use of these subsidiary lines, but it .would ■ nullify the orijjiual purpose for'which -the cable was laid. At toe same time it would make further developments and extensions "dependent on the "goodwill of the American- cable companies, "wbxjse interests," as .our critic caustically observes, "are not identical with those. <)f the self-contained Empire. 5 ' Against - such considerations as these the question of expense, or of profit and lossj is relatively trivial, «nd it is amazing that Canacla should have adopted so strictly commercial an- attitude toward this great Imperial enterprise. However, Canada has not yet shown any sign of wishing to withdraw from the Pacific Cable Board, and there |s still room for'hone that the representations of Britain, aftd Xew Zealand in favour of complete tion will have their due effect.