RADIO PACT

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 November 1927, Page 3

RADIO PACT

COMPREHENSIVE AGREEMENT. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) MONTREAL, November 25.

The Radio convention is now signed. The delegates, who have been in session nearly eight weeks, informal!}’ attached their signatures to the documents, totalling 26,000 words, while Mr Hoover, as Chairman of the Conference, delivered a speech felicitating them upon reaching, an agreement. The final editing of the convention and accompanying regulations will be left to the International Telegraph Bureau at Berne. The convention is the most comprehensive communications instrument ever adopted. It is accompanied by regulations governing the technical handling of radio practice. They are divided into two parts, one of which is non-obligatory on the United States because the latter’s radio communications are handled by private companies. Important provisions of the convention are compulsory arbitration in radio disputes, and the creation of an International Technical Advisory Committee. The Covention will be subject to revision. It meets at Madrid in 1932. Meanwhile the International Bureau, at Berne, will be the general international agency for radio information. The question of plural voting in radio matters was not settled at the present conference, and is not mentioned in the convention, which also avoided discussion on the Cortina report, which will be left to the Madrid Congress. Mr Brown, interviewed, said that he was particularly gratified with the result of the prolonged negotiations and the discussion at the radio conference. “The delegates necessarily were very apprehensive regarding the outcome of the conferenc to individual nations, if the restrictions were imposed, which might have been found necessary for conserving the general international interests. The problem presented was of considerable technical complexity, and the successful issue of the conference is to be attributed to the earnest desire of all concerned to pay regard to their neighbours’ interests, while striving to maintain the position of their own country. The density of radio traffic in different parts of the world varies greatly, and it would have been a matter of no slight difficulty to ensure that a remote country like Australia' should not have fettered wireless services, because of the need for prescribing stringent regulations for the control of communications in territory where the traffic is congested, but fortunately, owing to the attitude of the mutual accommodation displayed, it has been found possible to reach an international understanding, which will obviate any handicap on the development of wireless services in the Commonwealth.”