Telecommunications Chairman

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 10

Telecommunications Chairman

The appointment of Mr Dawson Donaldson, the present Director-General of the New Zealand Post Office, as chairman of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board for the next five years is a remarkable tribute not only fb Mr Donaldson’s administrative ability, but to the worldwide reputation of the Dominion’s communications system. It is particularly appropriate that a New Zealander should be appointed for the first time to this post, the most important of its kind in the Commonwealth (and perhaps in the world), during the centennial year of the New Zealand domestic telegraph service. Mr Donaldson has been well prepared by academic, practical, and executive experience for the responsibilities he will assume in London. Among the reasons for his appointment must have been his service as New .Zealand representative on the C.O.M.P.A.C. management committee, which oversees the planning and laying of the Commonwealth telephone cable. During Mr Donaldson’s chairmanship, the Telecommunications Board will be required .to cope with the initial operating problems of this new global asset, the creation of which symbolises an unprecedented international effort to improve communications

The Telecommunications Board, on which New Zealand is now represented by Mr E. H. R. Green, was incorporated in 1949 by Act of the Imperial Parliament to supersede the Commonwealth Communications Council A change in telecommunications control was dictated partly by the transfer to the British Government of the assets of Cable and Wireless, Ltd The United Kingdom legislation was a sequel to agreements concluded with other Commonwealth countries in 1948. It empowered the new Telecommunica-

tions Board, comprising representatives of all Commonwealth territories, to formulate and carry into effect a joint Commonwealth telecommunications policy (including the fixing of rates), to co-ordinate and develop the cable and wireless systems of the Commonweath, .and to coordinate telecommunication matters affecting Commonwealth defence. Scientific and technological progress since the board was established has increased enormously the complexity of its tasks. At this stage in the board’s development the choice of a New Zealander as chairman testifies to outstanding personal qualities even more than to the Dominion’s growing influence upon Commonwealth affairs.