A 7000 MILE CABLE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16679, 28 February 1920, Page 6

A 7000 MILE CABLE.

NEW TELEGRAPHIC LINK WITH THE FAR EAST. GROWTH OF TRAFFIC. LONDON, Dec. 18. Important extensions of tno cables arc foreshadowed among other measures for dealing with the congestion that is now straining tho resources of the companies and aggravating business men. Practically all the_ -cable companies are ordering additional plant. The Eastern Telegraph Company alone proposes to put down another 4000 miles as scon as the cable can. be- manufactured. At the meeting of'the Eastern Telegraph Co. yesterday, Sir J. D. Fender gave remarkable figures as to the increased demands upon the companies. The Government’s messages, _ _ which averaged 3000 words a day in’ 1913. now averaged 30,000. The number of paid words dealt with in a day in 1913 was 64 millions; now it was 180 millions. During the war three million words were sent free of charge in connection with Red Cross and other institutions. The chairman had hoped that When the ceni'orehip restrictions were removed and private codes were reintroduced the volume of traffic would diminish. But the reverse had taken' place. The total daily traffic was approximately eqnal to the total carrying capacity fef the system, therefore if any main line became interrupted delay was bound to occur. Before the war there was air ways a margin. Ho remarked . that this company was ono of the few public concerns that had not raised its. charges during the war. On the contrary, it had in fact reduced its rates since 1914 with British West Africa, New Zealand, the Dutch East Indies, Japan, South Africa, and Bast Africa, while reductions .with China, Hongkong and the Phillipines would come into operation in the New Year. The company had chartered the Stephan, one of the largest cable-laying steamers in the 1 world, which was taken over from the Germans, and she had just finished laying another ‘ cable between Porthcurnow (Cornwall) and Gibraltar, 1200 miles. That would form the first section of a new mam line between Britain and the Far East, through the Mediterranean via Bombay and Madras to Singapore—about 7000 miles of cable. They had also ordered a new repairing ship .capable of consuming either coal or oil fuel, and fitted with all the latest machinery and equipment.