SECOND TO NONE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 99, 27 April 1923, Page 7

SECOND TO NONE

EMPIRE WIRELESS PLANS

WORLD-WIDE COMMUNICATION

STABT ON MAIN BRITISH STATION.

(ONIIBB PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPTIUMH.) (AUSTRALIAN . NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) (Received 27th April, 9 a.m.) i' LONDON, 26th April. The "Morning Post" interviewed the Postmaster-General (Sir W. JoynsonHicks), who denied that the policy of the Post Office in regard to Empire wireless was in ariy respect dilatory. There had been dela^f, but these had nothing to do with the Post Office, which had to bear the sins of successive Governments, whose wireless policies had by rjo irjeans been consistent. The failure to proceed with the scheme of the Imperial Wnejess Committee appointed' in 1919 was partly due to the desire of th"c Dominions to have more direct communication, and partly to the financial stringency. Th§ experts accordingly recqrjsidered the problem, and, in view of the development of the highpower thermjqnic valve, they had prepared plans for a British station double the size, of that originaly contemplated, and capable of direct communication with Australia, India,, and South Africa. The Post Office had immediately prepared detailed specifications, arjd orders would have been placed long ago if the new Government had not desived to consider the whole question afreslu ; "Only last month the Post. Office received orders to proceed xritib the British Btation, and orders havQ been plac- ■ ed for masts 820 ft high, and the work of construction will be proceeded vith as quipkly as possible. \ have decided to make the power even, greater than the Planning Commission. 'proposed last year, and the. stations will be ncond to none in the world. Meanwhile, the Poet Office is operating stations at Oxford ayid Cairo. If these had riot been ■-ompleted the substantial expenditure incurred would have been wasted- It is true that Cair,o is not paying its way; we never expected it would, but it is a valuable link ill communication with the Kasf Oxford station is paying all expenses. It is dealing with BQ,CCO paid words weekly, and the Press service is superior to any service of ite kind in the world. "Cabinet has decided that private enterprise shall not be debarred from providing wireless communication between the Mother Country and the Dominions, but the licenses are not yet issued, as the Marconi Company desired a- closer knowledge of the Government's policy, and their counterproposals are now rer eeiyjng the Government's consideration."

Mr. Godfrey Isaacs, managing director of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd., commenting on Sir W, Joynson? Hioks's interview, informed the Australian Press Association 1:—"On taking office, the new Minister loit no time in conference with us upon the future working of high-power wireless stations. The questions which we considered, and the proposals \v« made to him have considerable importance, and naturally require careful Government consideration, but I believe that Sir William will quickly come to a* decision. The proposals are of a nature to ensure the closest co-oper-ation between the Post Office stations and those we shall erect with a view to making Britain the centre of the finest scheme of world-wide wireless oommunit cations."