EMPIRE CABLES

Grey River Argus, 24 November 1945, Page 5

EMPIRE CABLES

PEN nV-RATE**SUPPO RTE D LONDON, November 20. American plans to be placed before the coming international communications conference, are for a flat cable press rate, involving increase in the existing Empire rate' of a penny a word, says a statement by the Empne Press Union. In a memorandum sent to the Lord President .of the Council (Mr. Morrison) the Union summarises the case for penny-a-word rate within the Empire, the memorandum says: the Union worked for over 20 years tor a reduction of the Press rate to a penny a word, because it is held that the fullest possible understanding between the countries of the Empire and the Commonwealth could be maintained only, by the freest circulation of information. These efforts succeeded in October, 1941. The Union had no reason to assume that the penny rate had proved uneconomic or entailed financial loss, but reports that the United States telecommunications companies would press at the Bermuda conference for a flat rate had caused anxiety througout the Empire. The Americans, it was reported, proposed to achieve a flat rate by the scaling up of the Empire rate even to 2ld. , After the reduction to Id, the volume of Press traffic increased by 383 per cent, compared, with the 1938 volume. Information received by editors throughout the Empire increased by 110,227,000 words. The increase has been mainly from Britain to the Empire. This increase had given widespread satisfaction in the Dominions and colonies, _ where fuller accounts of Britain’s light for existence could be published than would otherwise have been possible, while the return flow increased Britain s awareness of the part played by the Dominions on world battlefields. ’The Dominions and colonies are

'"now watching with tremendous interest the development of post-war Britain, and it would be tragic if the flow of information were curtailed at this stage. . “We cannot contemplate without anxiety the possibility that a substantial increase in the rate might accentuate the difficulties of mutual understanding and co-opera-tion between the widely scattered Empire Commonwealth countries,”