COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24346, 26 August 1944, Page 5

COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

CHANGE IN EMPIRE SERVICES , PUBLIC CORPORATION PROPOSED LONDON, Aug. 24. The Prime Minister of Canada (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) has announced that a reorganisation of the Empire’s communications services by the establishment of a public utility corporatioh in Britain and in each Dominion, also India, has been proposed by the Commonwealth Communications Council. The proposals, which have been submitted to the various governments, suggest that the corporations should be separately owned, with the necessary linking arrangements. “Better, faster, and cheaper communications between the Empire countries are the object of the reorganisation proposals of the Commonwealth Communications Council, which the Dominion Governments are now considering,” says the “Daily Telegraph.” “The Dominions have submitted proposals to their own experts, whose opinions will be known when the council next meets. There is no intention that Empire communications should become the monopoly of any single body. The Dominions and India each want the ownership of their systems through public utility corporations working in close co-operation with each other.” The conversion of the private companies of the Empire into public utility services is a task of some complexity. These associated bodies are at present linked by financial control, but under the new system some other arrangement must be devised to replace bonds which are now purely commercial. The next meeting will also consider the relation of the Empire services with the American-owned system. A Treasury official, commenting on the plan, said that one enormous cartel to operate the Empire's services would not be created. The scheme at present was in a preliminary stage and its final shape could not be predicted until the Empire experts had passed judgment. A message from Ottawa says that if the recommendations of the Commonwealth Communications’ Council to the Empire Governments are acted upon, Canada’s cable communication with New Zealand and Australia, now owned by Cable and Wireless. Ltd., London, would be taken over by proposed Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian companies jointly. aged, but darkness prevented accurate observation of the results. Royal Air Force Mosquito bombers on Wednesday night made a concentrated attack on Cologne. Mosquitoes also bombed objectives in the Ruhr. None is missing. In the first 70 days of the invasion of France the Allied Air Force destroyed 2990 enemy aircraft in aerial combat, it was announced to-day at Supreme Headquarters. During the same period Allied losses totalled 2959.