CABLE AGREEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 104, 4 May 1911, Page 7

CABLE AGREEMENT.

BETWEEN TWO COMPANIES. .fly, Telegraph.— Press As6ociation.».-CopyrJtht. (Received May 4, 9 a.m.) LONDON, 3rd May. The lEvoning Standard states that the cable agreement between the AngloAmerican Telegraph Company and the Western Union Company has been completed. [It was announced on 20th December last that the Anglo-American Telegraph Company had entered into an agreement with the Western Union Company, subject to confirmation by their board, by which the American company would absolutely and unconditionally guarantiee 3| per cent, on the £7,000,000 of Anglo-American capital in perpetuity. The two companies, it was added, would continue to work as separate* undertakings. Th© agreement marks the transference into American hands of the control of the sole remaining British cables across the Atlantic. The Anglo-American Company, owning four cables, together with the Direct United States Cable Company, owning one cable, has long been partners with the Western Union, owning two cables, in a traffic pool, bub the new arrangement will mean much closer co-operation, including a practical unity of management. "Although the English companies will be guaranteed their dividends, it is to be noted (remarked TheTimes) that nothing is said regarding a division of surplus profits, which will, it is believed, fall to the American and predominant parkier. At th© last halfyearly meeting of the proprietors of th& Anglo-American Company, the chairman foreshadowed an identification of interests with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which had recently acquired an interest in the Western Union, declaring that this^ was one of thotse businesses in which competition fails to produce the most economical results, and that the best/ and cheapest service deeded on the existence of ono centralised company, combination, or government. It may be" taken for granted thai the new arrangement will mean more economical working and improved service, but it possesses also the wider significance noted above."]