Cheaper Cable and Radio Rates

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 283, 30 November 1945, Page 6

Cheaper Cable and Radio Rates

NEW YORK, Nov. 27. The United States and British Commonwealth members attending the Telecommunications Conference at Bermuda will soon sign an executive agreement lowering cable and radio rates, abolishing the British communications monopolies in certa: 1 countries, and granting ; the United States the right to maintain | indefinitely direct radio circuits to six points within the British Empire, including New Zealand, says the New York Times’ correspondent. The executive agreement provides that the United States will be granted the right to establish one direct radio circuit with New Zealand, Australia, India, Palestine, Jamaica and Bermuda. The conferees agreed in principle to a ceiling price of 30 cents a word for all full-rate messages between terminal points in the United States and the British Commonwealth. The United | States will insist in the agreement on lan ultimate objective of 20 cents a word, but will accept 30 cents as an immediate compromise. The original 1 British offer was a 33 1-3 cents ceiling. The adoption of a 30 cents ceiling will remove many discrepancies in the present international rates. The British Government agreed for the first time in history to How American newspapers or news agencies to broadcast Press messages direct to clients in the United Kingdom. A proposal that this right of broadcast be extended to multiple destinations elsewhere in the British Commonwealth was rejected. New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa and India "11 indicated willingness to receiv such messages for American agencies, but Insisted on the Government’s right to handle Press traffic. The British Government agreed to give up its monopoly over external communications in Saudi-Arabia, Iraq and Greece whenever United States interests are involved, but the agreement to abandon its ‘ ‘ exclusive arrangements” in these countries is limited to certain special United States interests alone.