MERGER SCHEME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 35, 11 February 1935, Page 7

MERGER SCHEME.

Communication by Cable and Wireless. EMPIRE UNDERTAKINGS. CAPETOWN, February 10. The Postmaster-General, Mr. H. J. Lenton, in an address to the Imperial Press Conference, claimed that the cablewireless merger scheme, taken as a whole, had worked out successfully, though possibly it was capable of greater development. He expressed the opinion that the whole system of the telegraph and telephone communication channels of the Empire should be controlled by one great public utility trust, in which each country should have a share interest and a measure of control. The Pacific Cable Board was an example , of the joint ownership he had in mind, said Mr. Lenton. A formidable task was involved in co-ordinating the cable and wireless services. The traffic losses caused by the depression had not been recovered, and efforts to reconcile obligations to the Imperial Advisory Committee, the demands of the public for reduced rates, and the interests- of shareholders, had caused the directors much anxiety.

The Minister suggested that it was time another conference was held, as in 1928, to examine the results of the merger and to report where improvements were needed. He had observed that the Press had not made much use of the wireless telephone, possibly owing to the high tariff. Referring to the proposal for an allEmpire deferred rate of one penny Mr. Lenton said it would be very difficult of attainment and hardly remunerative. He considered a uniform rate in Britain and the Dominions for ordinary Press traffic was very desirable. Africa charged the lowest terminal rates in the interests of trade development and advertisement. If any countries still charged terminal rates on messages not actually handled by them he had great sympathy with the resolution of the 1930 Press Conference dealing generally with charges. Mr. Lenton said he was a member of the Cable-Wireless Conference in 1928 and claimed to have an intimate knowledge of the inside history of Empire communications: PRESS CENSORSHIP. CONFERENCE DISCUSSION. CAPETOWN, February 10. The Imperial Press Conference yesterday discussed the question of censorship. Mr. R. J. H. Shaw, who was Press censor in Ireland 1910-18, said political censorship in a time of peace was unthinkable in Britain and the Dominions. Mr. H. G. Adam, of Melbourne, said there was a great deal of indirect- censorship by the Government of Australia through the Customs,, which refused entry to many foreign newspapers and books. He could understand this in a country/ with definite, delicate problems, but not in Australia, where, the aim was to promote an educated-and enlightened democracy. The conference carried a resolution inviting the oversea sections of the Empire Press Union to collate information about existing restrictions on the free publication of expressions of opinion. i