THE WIRELESS CHAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18677, 5 October 1922, Page 5

THE WIRELESS CHAIN

NEED OF UNIFIED CONTROL. EMPIRE PRESS UNION. (From Odb Own Correspondent.) LONDON, August 9. Empire communications by wireless and the importance of co-ordination and unified control in the long-projected wireioss diam were subjects discussed at the annual meeting of the Empire Press Union. in their report the council stated that no general reduction of cable rales toi pies» purposes could be recorded, but post-war 'conditions had been such that their piincipal ciu’o hful been the prevention ot increases of rates, and the securing of quicker and more reliable transmission. It was, however, highly satisfactory to record that tho Imperial 'lrflUStithuilic Oiiblc now ottered a reliable service at 2id a word (prcs-). The Imperial (.able had also reduced its deferred general rale to 4jd and this had been lollowod by a corvesijonding reduction by the Western Union and Commercial Cables. These reductions had been ‘ brought about by inducing the Pest Office authorities to lessen their •‘peak load”—that was to say, to' give reduced rates during the slacker hours. Mr Robert Donald, who presided, said that the recent statement of a new' policy on Empire wireless by the PostmasterGeneral had come somewhat as a surprise. ]t was a confession on the part ot the Post Office that its policy in the past had been wrong. He did not know that it needed more courage on the part of a Minister to admit his mistakes than it did to change his policy, but Mr Kellaway had clone both. The change did not undo the early blunders, nor did it overtake the consequence of delay. Two years ago the Post Office was firmly convinced that the only way of wirelessing the Empire was to go round in two-thousand-niilo stages. REVERSAL OF POLICY.

The first recommendation of the Norman Committee was that a scheme of Imperial wireless communications be established connecting the communities of the Empire by geographical steps of about two thousand miles each. It was vaguely conceded that greater distances could be spanned, but only as hazardous experiments at ,;i prohibitive cost. The report of tho exiiert commission issued early this year advanced a stage. It recognised that direct communication was possible with India and Australia to a limited extent over limited periods on some days. But tho intermediary stations were still considered indispensable links in tho chain. Now. only a few months afterwards,. tho PostmasterGeneral announced a complete reversal of policy. The long-distance stations would bo erected first and the secondary stations afterwards. Consequently, tho stations in East,Africa, in Singapore, in Hong-Kong, tho second station at Leaiield, and the second one in Egypt were to be scrapped, and instead of these Wo were to have a ,new high-powered station in Lincolnshire, and ’another in India. The Indian station would bo erected by the British Post Office, but operated by tho Indian Government. This new plan also meant entire change of equipment and in methods of transmission ACTION BY AUSTRALIA, The Postmaster-General did not tell them how his Empire chain would be worked. Tho position at present, as he understood it, was that while the British Post Office announced that it would erect a station in India for direct communication with England, the scheme had not’ yet been sanctioned by tho Indian Parliament. Tho application trom an Indian company—an alliance between (he well-known house of Tata and Marconi interests—to carry on communications between India and England had not yet been '‘turned down.” Tho Prime Minister of Australia had made good his throat. Ho lost all patience with the British Post Office, and the commonwealth had entered into a contract with the Australian Marconi Company. While keeping control in its own hands, it was fulfilling the hopes of Mr Hughes to get into direct communication with England, so that he could tell Downing street what ho thought about things without any intermediary delays. Tho Australian Government representative was now' in London completing plans for the erection of the most powerful stations in the world. A station of similar capacity would bo erected in England. It was thus expected to maintain fairly regular communication with Australia. The Union Government of South Africa had decided in favour of private enterprise, but had not yet entered into a contract. The Government of Canada, so far, had not informed the’ British' Government what its Empire policy would bo, but it had granted a con tract to a Canadian company—a Marconi affiliation—for erecting stations at Montreal and Vancouver. “There will thus,” Mr Donald added, “bo two or three systems of wireless in tho Empire, not one of which will be a complete chain in itself. Unless they are co-ordinated there will certainly be delay and confusion. All the high-powered stations should work in harmony, and the whole Empire system or systems should bo under unified control. You wifi see, thereforo, while tho position of Empire wireless has improved, it is yet far from satisfactory. In tho meantime other countries are getting ahead of us.”