Evening Post. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1909. "THE NERVES OF EMPIRE."

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 58, 6 September 1909, Page 6

Evening Post. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1909. "THE NERVES OF EMPIRE."

Canada seems likely to be the cause of another great disappointment 4 to the Empire. One of the questions which received most attention from the Imperial Conference was that of improving the telegraphic communication between the various countries of the Empire, and tho conference had the pleasure of hearing from the" representative of the Pacific Cable Board the first* announcement of the board's decision to reduce its rate for press messages. It is hardly necessary to insist at this time of day upon the importance to the Empire of the cheap cable communication which the conference emphasised at its first meeting as one of its paramount objects. It is only through the medium of the electric telegraph that the members of a great and scattered Empire can be got to think together. Concentration of thought, feeling, and action is impossible if one part of the Empire does not get the accurate- knowledge of events occurring in other parts of it, and perhaps demanding immediate action, till some weeks have passed since their occurrence. While cable rates are high, severely condensed reports are what the Empire must rely upon, even in matters of the first importance. " The transmission of news in a nutshell," said the Times in its editorial comments on the proceed-^ ings of the Imperial Press Conference, "is fertile in the creation of misunderstanding. Pointed passages torn from their context in a speech tend often to cause offence, though, the speedi as apoken may be absolutely unexceptionable in tone and statement." The reduction of cable rates should therefore be one of the first objects of Imperial policy, and the Press Conference gave our statesmen a good lead in the matter by three important resolutions on the subject. The first of these resolutions asked for a reduction of the. rates under the existing system. The second recommended the establishment of an Imperial chain of wireless stations as the best means of reducing the charges on messages sent in the ordinary way. The third urged that one of the essentials to any satisfactory scheme would be a State-owned cable across the Atlantic, and State control of the land connection with the Pacific across Canada. The first of these resolutions took almost immediate effect by eliciting the response from the 'Pacific Cable Board to which we have referred. The board agreed to reduce its rates for press messages from 5d to 2£d, and the New Zealand Government was equally prompt in undertaking to reduce its terminal charges proportionately — that is to say, 50 per cent. The second proposal we need not discuss, beyond saying that Mr. 'Marconi's support of it cannot bn regarded as quite unbiassed, and that the new method has, in the opinion of independent experts, not yet attained to a sufficient degree of perfection to justify the (Empire in giving it such a preference. The resolution wnich asks that tne lines of Imperial communication shall be* entirely in the hands of the respective Governments concerned is the one that requires the smallest departure from existing conditions, and offers the most, practical iiope. The success of the fust resolution of the conference on the subject constituted indeed a very powerful argument for the third. The immediate response of the Pacific Cable Board, representing the Governments ol Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, which own the cable, and also of the New Zealand Government, shows that Governments can afford to consider the public interests for which, they are the trustees, while the directors of a company must make dividends their supreme consideration. Even after all the discussion that has taken place, it will probably come as a surprise to many intelligent people in a land where the telegraph system seems as necessary a part of the functions of the State as the police, to find that the Empire is still dependent upon private enterprise for the transmission of its messages across the Atlantic and the American continent. Canada has followed the lead of the United States in allowing her telegraphs to remain in private hands, and the Atlantic cables, which in their inception were too risky a venture for a State to touch, have not changed ownership with the altered conditions. The cost of a new cable across the Atlantic was put in the Estimates before the conference at a million pounds, and it was strongly urged that the expenditure of this amount out of the cum needed to buy the Canadian lines would be amply repaid by the advantages to the Empire of public control in this vital matter. The difficulty of adjusting the financial relations between governments and private companies presents co formidable a barrier to the reduction of rates that the sweeping reductions necessary in the interests of the Empire seem to be impracticable until the change desired by the Press Conference is brought about. It was a Canadian delegate who was the most prominent advocate of the proposal before the conference, but we are now informed, on apparently good authority, that the weakness of the Canadian Government may postpone indefinitely the carrying of this necessary reform. The Ottawa Journal states that "through pressure of corporate influence and speculative dealing in cable stocks by persons close to the Administration, Ministers have determined to ignore tha projected cpnferenca in London, and to refuse their support to the movement for a system of public cables round the Empire." 'ihe Toronto correspondent of The Times, who evidently regards the source of this information as trustworthy, slates but the fact when he says that "if true it must prove a fatal blow to the whole great project." Ha believes that there is "region, to thiajj that fch<*

Government has no natural sympathy for the movement to establish public cables in competition with private systems." His description of Sir Wilfrid Laurier as "at best a passive Imperialist who believes the only safeguard of Empire is sentiment," is undoubtedly correct, as was proved to demonstration at the last Imperial Conference. Sir. Wilfrid Laurier was then accused by the Morning Post of betraying the cause of u he self-governing Dominions by the limpness of his attitude on the question of the Secretariat. We did not altogether object to his caution then, but in the present case the passiveness of his Imperialism seems to be sacrificing the welfare of the Empire to that of the moneyed interests which control the cable and telegraph services of Canada.