COMPULSORY WIRELESS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 25, 12 January 1911, Page 11

COMPULSORY WIRELESS.

EQUIPMENT OF PASSENGER SHIPS. Several European countries have debated whether the equipment of their passenger ships with wireless telegraph apparatus should be made compulsory. Austria alone has so far taken the plunge. It is announced that all Austrian passenger ships whose services carry them beyond Gibraltar, on the one hand, and beyond Aden on the other, must, in future, possess means of wireless communication. Possibly it is a consideration of the circumstances attending the breakdown of the Austrian-Lloyd liner Trieste in the Indian Ocean which has led to this decision. This very incident, it may be remembered, was cited by Sir Edward Sassoon in support of his bill for the compulsory adoption of wireless by British shipping. That measure was not seriously pressed upon the attention of the House of Commons, perhaps because of lack of opportunity. It was one of many which expired when Parliament was dissolved.

It is quite likely that Austrian passenger steamship companies engaged in long sea trades have little or no objection to the propose i reJgulation. Probably, indeed, they have, to some extent, anticipated its requirement. Some interest, however, will attach to the details of the regulation. Sir Edward Sassoon’s bill, it may be remembered, would not have become operative for twelve months. At the expiration of that period no ship. British or foreign, carrying passengers, or fifty persons, including passengers and crew, could leave a British port without a wireless equipment, v.nder a penalty of £lOOO. There would be a lien on the ship till the fine was paid. Coastwise traffic, it is true, would be exempt, but. even so, the bill was far-reaching as well as drastic. The Board of Trade I might possibly think twice before it decided to subject a foreign ship to such a severe penalty, even if it thought a British vessel should be :so dealt with. At present, however. ! the attitude of the Board of Trade J appears to be that wireless telegraphy is extending so rapidly that there is no need for compulsion.