CABLES NOT OBSOLETE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 49, 26 August 1926, Page 9

CABLES NOT OBSOLETE

FUTURE OF WIRELESS

IMPROVED SEEVICES.

An interesting arrival in Wellington from Sydney, in continuation of a world tour, is Sir Eoderick Jones, manager of Beuter's well-lcnown and world-wide news service. He is travelling partly for health reasons and partly on business in connection with cable services generally. From Wellington he goes to Auckland and then to Vancouver.

Discussing with a "Post" representative the future of cable services .and tho competition between them and wireless, Sir Eoderick Jones said:—"ln tho course of five or ten years wireless is going to play an enormoiis influence in tho world's inter-communication services. So convinced has Eouter's become of this that they have a department of experts who watch and' study its progress and tho direction of that progress. Wo have tho biggest wifeless service in Europe, a service that can bo tapped on the Continent at all points'required. Such a service could, and in the future .most assuredly will, be applicable to tho whole world, reI suiting in a much freer dissemination of news and a greater cheapening in the cost of the news. There is no question of supplanting your cable services, which are absolutely indispensable, and will become more and more so, because they are being improved in efficiency overy year. It is possible now to send hundreds of words a minut,o by special machines over tho cables, a thing not at all possible with wireless. The most that one can say with confidence concerning wireless services is that they will supplement tho cable services. Wo do not find in practice that any effective method of maintaining secrecy by eliminating the factor of the 'listener in' other than the station wanted has been found, nor are we at all sanguine of future researches in this respect.

"The question of cable communications means more to the British Empire than to any other countries of the world. Everywhere in the Empire we find appreciation of that fact. Tho cheapening of cable charges is tending to do awa'' with codes, and week-end letters are much utilised by firms in all parts of the world to communicate with each other. In the matter of wirelessing news there is little to fear from pirating by 'listeners in' becauso the company is effectively protected by tho Jaw of property right, not merely the law of copyright. There is also the other means of protection by the coding of messages." Tho fact that the Eastern Cable Company was spending huge sums of money on scientific research and tho laying of now cables was sufficient ovidenco in itself that; cables were becoming of greater importance than. ever.

When questioned about tho question of a universal language in whicli broadcasting might be done, Sir Roderick said that ho had found during his travels that tho English language is fast becoming the universal language for communication between countries. There is no other language taught in the schools of tho United States of America, and English is in general use in India, China, and Japan. When tho Germans send out their propaganda they do so not in 'German, but in English. That in itself was significant of the universality of tho English language. As a result of his world-wide tour Sir Eoderick Jones expects that the news supplies at the disposal of tho nowspapers will bo greatly improved.