The Daily News SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1931. EMPIRE COMMUNICATION

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1931, Page 4

The Daily News SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 1931. EMPIRE COMMUNICATION

, The negotiations now proceeding r in Canada in regard to a suggest- • ed merger of the two main tele- ; graph systems in that country ’ open a new chapter in the history of intra-Enipire communications. That history may be said to have begun with the establishment of the Pacific cable service, the Stateowned cable service established nearly a generation ago. At that ‘ time the development of radion telegraphy was scarcely thought I, of, and the justification for a publicly-owned cable was twofold. It was hoped by its coni- ’’ petition to reduce the tariff charged by cable companies, and in the r second place to insure a cable ser- - vice in time of war that would be wholly under British control, with ’ all its terminals and relay sta- , tions situated in British territory. , Both these aims the Pacific cable ' may be said to have reached. Though charges were not reduced 5 to the extent that had been hoped for by the public, some reduction ■ did eventuate, and the service was able to accumulate profits, from • which a duplication of cables was financed. An argument against further reduction in charges had . been that the single cable was already fully taxed with the traffic offering, and duplication was essential before any lower prices could be considered as a means of increasing the number of messages handled. The value of the service during the Great War was very great. Without it the congestion of messages, bad as it often was, would have been very much worse, while the difficulties of defending the cable stations would have been far greater’ had some of them been in foreign lands. With the end of the war and the duplication of plant completed it looked as though the course'was set for a great increase in traffic, with the corollary of lower rates to the public. But a new rival in ‘‘beam” wireless telegraphy had come into being.

It required plants that could be established for a far smaller cost than that of laying a cable, and for ordinary messages the service it could give was quite as satisfactory as that of the cable companies. Moreover, wireless telegraphy had only just begun, so to speak, and with the improvements scientific research was making its rivalry with cable telegraphy was bound to increase. The private cable companies became alarmed. Those most affected had been profit making concerns for their shareholders for many years, and from the reserves accumulated they could have returned all the capital invested, even if they had decided to scrap their plants and cease operations. The Pacific Cable Board, though not in so happy a position, could also have retired from competition with wireless without any great loss to the United Kingdom and the Dominions that had financed the service under its control. .There remained other aspects for consideration. Dependence upon wireless telegraphy solely was subject to the danger of interference by other countries, even by potential enemies at a time <of international crisis, while the possibility of leakage of messages and of errors in transmission was far greater than in the case of cable services. The result was an amalgamation of all British oversea telegraph services, wireless and cable, into a public company known as Imperial and International Communications, Ltd., with private contrpl, but with Government representation on the directorate, and with certain limitations in dealing with revenue so as to protect the public from exploitation by the monopoly thus created. For reasons that have not, so far, been fully analysed the volume of traffic since the amalgamation of interests took place has shown considerable shrinkage, and the lowered tariff hoped for- has not been possible. It looks as though the company is desirous of extending its operations to inland services, in which the scope for earnings may be greater than in oversea traffic, and the suggestion that the Canadian inland telegraph services should coalesce with the Imperial company is the first move in the new direction. It will be interesting to see the attitude adopted by the Canadian Government. It was Canada, as one of the partners in the Pacific Cable, that was most se\ erely critical of the results attained by that service and the use to which profits made by it were devoted. More than half the telegraph lines in that Dominion are privately owned, so that the question of State rather than private control will "hot be the only issue. Presumably the chief justification for the suggested merger will be an improved and cheapened service between Great and Canada and within that Dominion itself. Should that be found possible the movement for an amalgamation of all telegraphic services within the Empire would probably increase, and New Zealand and Australia would be asked to share in its full development. Public ownership of such services is in this country and in Australia regarded almost as part of the Constitution, so that very cogent reasons for a departure from that practice would be required to convince the public of

the wisdom of a change. In the meantime the investigation and decision made in Canada will be watched with a good deal of interest here.