IMPERIAL MOBILITY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 101, 30 April 1909, Page 4

IMPERIAL MOBILITY.

1 A PLEA FQR (LAYING 'ALL-BRITISH CABLES "It would seem to be well worth whi>, from the national and Imperial standpoint," write Mr. Charles Bright, F.R.S.E., in tho Westminster Review, "to expend a certain amount on further all-British cables worked on n basis of comparatively low rates within the Ernpim The adoption of such a course would serve to foster trade 'twist theMother Country and her colonies. "We should also remember the strategic value of Imperial lines of communication. May we not, indeed, ask what Is tho use of an id<a such as Imperial Unity — or how can it be relied upon in practice — withrbut Impetial mobility in a strategic sense? Let us not forget, too, that there are still some portions' of our international telegraph system which ai - e worked by foreign clerks, whose telegraphic energy and efficiency — at no time of a, very high class — is liable to be seriously reduced in the event of misunderstandings abroad. It has been argued that strategic cables could be laid 'to order' as required. It is even said that a portion of the large reserve funds set aside by the cable 'companies am intended for that very purpose. Bo that ;>s it may, our cable communication via the Mediterranean Sea would be more likely to be cut off as a precursor to war than actually during war. The harm would be effected, indeed, before we knew where we were; and it would then take several weeks probably before the missing link could be restored. What that might mean it is scarcely npcessp-ry to state. "Ths , seizure of a cable-station on foreign 6horcs previous to, or during, war is an operation which might any day occur, whether as a, formula for the declaration of was, or otherwise. In the event of an outbreak, naval supremacy coidd only be maintained if accompanied by direct communication with the nearest coaling stations, as Well as with •■ headquarters. By means of the cable it is possible to concentrate a navy in a way that would be quite impracticable without. "Then, again, it should scarcely be necessary to call attention to the importance — even under normal conditions — of dwect telegraphic communication with all our fortified and garrisoned coal stations. To effect this alone the ordinary trade routes must be departed from. In fact, the best conditions for a strategic cable are peculiarly at variance with those for ordinary purposes. Thus strategic lines are comparatively invulnerable if laid in deep water, with a few landing" places in out of the way (non-trade) routes, their exact course not being divulged. The most favourable routes for such lines is in the open ocean. Under these conditions they are admittedly difficult even for a cable ship to recover. "Trade routes are not good routes 1 strategically, if, as is olten the case, the cable -passes through shallow water in the vicinity of foreign territory. Cables have seldom befen laid with ar mainly strategic object, for the reason that, it so laid, they run counter to financial profit, and are more costly to maintain. It is, however, just such lines as these that should be recognised as a necessary adjunct for an Empire with important possessions m> widely scattered ; and as the cable companies appear to be indisposed to undertake these lines even under subsidies — they can scarcely be called upon to do so — it rests with the State to put them into effect. "We think nothing of -spending a million on a battleship as a -wise provision of war ; but the same amount spent on cables mi^ht often be of greater national benefit in even averting war, or any rate in bringing the battleship into more immediate touch with her base — thereby rendering her effective instead of ineffective. "The All-British Pacific cable is an excellent example of something that has | already proved its value to the nation. After twenty years' talk, the line actually became an accomplished fact on 31st October, 1902, the alleged ' insurmountable difficulties ' being over come m a wonderfully short time. It may, indeed, be said that the speed with which *this work was carried out — it was made and laid within a year — was one of the grandest engineering achievements ever accomplished."