The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1930. WIRELESS TELEPHONY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1930, Page 8

The Daily News FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1930. WIRELESS TELEPHONY.

There are few people of the British Empire who a decade ago would have honestly believed in the possibility of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, as he sat in his usual ehair in the Cabinet room at No. 10 Downing Street. London, using the telephone and conversing with tfie Prime Minister of Australia in his official room at Canberra. That such a marvel has been accomplished so perfectly that the Press representatives present in an adjoining room at Downing Street were able to take a verbatim report, of the conversation “without missing a syllable,” not only emphas-. ises the complete success of the new wireless telephone service to the Antipodes but creates a record of which those concerned in the development of this latest wonder of science may justly feel proud. That this inaugural ceremony was successful as far as Australia is concerned appears to be by the fact that the conversation was broadcast throughout the Commonwealth. Such an accomplishment is bound to create a profound impression. The Press cable describes it as “uncanny,” and there is some justification for. the use of that word. And yet it is not surprising that, just as in the earlier case of telegraphy and telephony with wires, a considerable time elapsed between the introduction of wireless telegraphy and the modification which after the war made wireless telephony possible. More than forty years ago Graham Bell (of telephone fame) .succeeded in transmitting speech by means of a. beam of light “up to distances of 200 yards,.” but it took many years to evolve a system of wireless telephony that, like telegraphy, was able to girdle the earth. Now that this remarkable achievement has been accomplished in the face of difficulties that appeared at times to be insuperable the development seems to have taken place in natural stages. Only to those who have so patiently and doggedly met and overcome all obstacles to advancement are the nature of those troubles fully known. They set out with the determination to make communication by wireless telephony possible throughout the whole globe, .and when that service is extended systematically to New Zealand their task will have been accomplished. At present it stops short of the whole circuit of the globe and relaying has to be used, but occasionally wireless messages reach New Zealand direct, so that what is possible can be made systematic. Wireless telephony possesses an advantage to which no other means of communication from a distance can lay claim, namely, that intimate personal touch which means so much either in business or personal relationship. This phase of the subject was in evidence at the inaugural ceremony of the establishment of wireless telephony between England and Australia, i when the British Prime Minister intimated to the Press representatives . that he had not heard the voice of Mr. Scullin, Prime Minister of Australia, since 1906, but recognised it at the first word he said. There is much truth in the remark made by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald that the new service would be the means of knitting more closely together the two countries. He might well have said it would accomplish that most desirable end throughout the whole Empire. The occasion ( was all the more remarkable because not only was chere an exchange of the courtesies and congratulations inherent to such an event, but other prominent sub-

jccts were mentioned, thereby demonstrating the great utility of wireless telephony between Britain and othex’ units of the Empire. By means of,the latest developments in radio broadcasting the people of all nations are beginning to realise the nature of the human tie that exists between the component parts of the globe. Possibly that factor may prove to be of great service in the promotion of peace and goodwill. The time will 'doubtless arrive when owing to this system of personal communication by the living voice a more intimate relationship will take the place of the old custom of regarding the people of distant nations as strangers or foreigners. The process may be, and probably must be, slow, yet when the natxxre of friendly intercourse is studied it discloses that the operation ,of such beneficent leverages as wireless telephony and air transport travel must inevitably break down the fonnei’ barriers of isolation and make the whole world akin.