WIRELESS AND CABLES

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21464, 4 May 1935, Page 17 (Supplement)

WIRELESS AND CABLES

COMMUNICATION LINKS AN EMPIRE SERVICE Of the many links in the chain which hinds the British Empire together, perhaps the most important of all is the 1 vast network of submarine cables which, through every one of thousands of telegraph o/liccs, links colony with colony and dominion with dominion. Controlling and co-ordinating all cable and wireless communication at the British end of Imperial trafllc, Imperial International Communications, Ltd., owns and operates 165.801 nau- • tical miles of electric cable, though ! many British-owned cables extend bc- , yond Empire limits. Twenty thousand land miles link Australia with London through the Suez Canal and Colombo, and across i tiie Pacific Ocean wind 0000 miles of . cable, joining this part of the world ! with Canada, which, in turn, is connected to Europe by the Trans-Atlan- '■ tic network. The enormous amount of traffic over | the cable routes is graphically shown by British post ofllce figures. Apart ' from the 10,5-14,000 words received and transmitted by beam wireless between Australia and elsewhere, the Pacific ' cable dealt with 1,893,000 words in ■ 1931-32 (including 39,000 from New • Zealand, Norfolk Island, and Fiji), and • no fewer than 3,250,000 words were ; sent and received over the Suez route. Expanding Communications After America had been linked with ■ Great Britain the development of Em- : piru communications began in earn--1 est, and between 1039 and 1009 com- , municatlon by cable with Bombay through Alexandria, Suez, Aden, and Karachi was successfully established, . the link with Australia being corn- ' pleled through the East Indies in 1870. | South Africa and the West Indies ro--1 mained still to be linked with the ; Homeland, but telegraphic pioneers ' had foreseen the future of world-wide telegraphy, and, through the operation > of new companies and the subsidies ■ of governments cables were laid evcry- - where. ■\ By 1897 there were networks down i the east and west coasts of Africa and ; South America. Bermuda and the . West Indies were linked with the At-! ■ lantie cables and with North and South • America. New Zealand was con- ' nected to the system through Austrn- ; lia, and the Far East cables were extended through China and Japan. The value of all-British communication led to the establishment of the cable from Vancouver to Australia, via Fanniipg : Island. Fiji, and Norfolk Island. On this route is the longest cable in the 5 world, covering the Vancouver-Fan--1 ning Island span of 3458 nautical 1 miles, and touching the bottom in one ' '-pot at 3i miles deep. opened in 1902. Cables were laid from Ans- ' tralin lo South Africa through ihe [ Cocos Islands, and the dream of an ■ all-red route to Australia through Canada was achieved when, (hiring the j war. the cable from Eniden (Germany) to the Azores and New York fell inio British hands. The ends were diverted . in 1915 to allow London to speak to 1 Halifax. Thus a telegram from England to Australia may travel eastwards via the Suez Canal, Mediterranean, and 1 Aden, south through Cape Town, or westward through Halifax and Vancouver. All over the world such a web of alternative connexions it; pro- , vided that it is rare for a telegram to bo delayed through the interruption , of a main route. Radio Developments As time passes there is being built I up an ever-enlarging, though invisible, [ fabric of wireless communication, [■ stretching throughout the British Emj pire. In this development the wireless communications centring upon Australia and New Zealand play an important part. It might even be said } that the Australian and New Zealand f portion of this vast interlocking chain ; is the most important, inasmuch as . the distances covered to and from t New Zealand are necessarily much : greater than those centring upon such • parts of the Empire as Britain. In (he early days of radio the Brir lish Government established a few i small wireless stations, in Fiji and the surrounding islands. The Admiralty controlled these stations from its headquarters in London. Naturally ; certain difficulties were experienced i owing, to the geographical relations between the two places, but it was . realised that wireless communication ■ must be developed in the Pacific if • the Empire was to hold its own with . the ambitious programmes of other powers in these waters such as Ger- , many, France, the United States, and later, Japan. The suggestion was then made bv , Mr E. T. Fisk, managing director of i Amalgamated Wireless, to Mr L. S. : Amery, who was then First Lord of the Admiralty, that Amalgamated ; Wireless should take over from the i Imperial Government all the wireless , stations in the Fiji group, with the • object of modernising and operating them as units of the Pacific and Aus- • tralian network already controlled bv Amalgamated Wireless. The negotla"tions led to an agreement being ram- . plcted between the Imperial Government and Amalgamated Wireless in

1922, and to-day the Fiji stations are equipped in the most modern style. Pacific Stations The most important of the Fiji wireless stations is at Suva,.which collects and distributes trafllc from and to all islands in the North and South Pacific which have wireless communication. It is in direct communication with Sydney, and thence with the beam wireless service of Melbourne, Fiskville, and Rockbank, by means of which island trafllc is passed on to Britain and the Continent of Europe, or to Canada, the United States, Central ami South America. The Sydney radio station is also in communication with such important island centres as Samoa, the Friendly Islands, the Gilbert and Ellicc Islands, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, and Honolulu. An important radio point of the vast Empire network in tho Pacific is in tho Mandated Territory of New Guinea, where the chief station of Amalgamated Wireless is located at Bita Paka. near Rabaul, on the island of New Britain. This is a high-speed modern station, which connects with Australia and Britain through Sydney. Bita Paka is also in direct communication with Aitaoe and Madang, New Guinea: Manns, Admiralty Islands: Kavieng. New Ireland: Kieta, Bougainville Island; and Wait and Salamoa, on the New Guinea goldftelds. It also communicates with the Gilbert and El lice. Solomon, and Santa Cruz islands. At Port- Moresby, in Papua, is another unit of the Paclllc wire-less network. From here communication is effected with Samarai, in . Papua, with Thursday Island, and with Cooktown and Townsvillc, in Australia. Coastal ami Telephone Work -• Round the coast of Australia stretches a chain of 19 coastal stations, These are in communication with shipping, and also, by means of the Australian internal telegraph and telephone systems, with post olllces and telegraph offices throughout the Commonwealth, Thus the wireless .network Huns over Australia and" the Pacific Ocean enables messages to be exchanged by anyone ashore or afloat with any part of the civilised v/orld. Even more intimate communication is provided between Australia and New Zealand and the outside world by the Anglo-Australian Radio Telephono Service and the wireless telephone between Australia and New Zealand. The former was officially ini auguratcd on April 30, 1930, the wirelets channel being provided by AUm- • tralian Wireless Amalgamated through the company's transmitting station at Pennant Hills (New South Wales), and receiving station at La Pcrouso. By this means the whole telephone sys--1 tern of Australia is linked with thai ' of New Zealand and Great Britain, and ■ through further wireless and wired ■ channels, with most of the countries of Europe. America, Africa as far south as Cape Town, and part ot Asia. Any telephone subscriber in Australia is now able to ring up from his own home or from a post-oflice, about 33,000,000 telephone subscribers in other parts of the world—approximately,9s per cent, of the total number of subscribers in the world.