IN TOUGH BY WIRELESS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 30 April 1912, Page 4

IN TOUGH BY WIRELESS.

A recent London cable states that the Postmaster-General, Mr. H. L. Samuel, has accepted, subject to Parliamentary ratification, tlio terms of the Marconi Int-rnational Wireless Communication Company for the construction of a scries of Imperial wireless stations. It is proposed to erect stations immediately in England, Cyprus, Aden, Bangalore, South Africa, and Singapore. Each station will cost £00,000. exclusive of tho cost of the site for the buildings. The company will receive 10 per cent.

of the gross receipts during the 28 years' currency of the agreement. Following upon that was a cablegram \o Mr. E. T. Fisk, Australian representative of the Marconi Wireless Communication Company from the London office of the company, to the effect that a contract has just beeu completed between the company and the British Government for the erection of a series of wireless stations which will form a great chain of communication throughout tho Empire. The project is a costly one, as each station will mean an expenditure of £60,000, exclusive of the site and the buildings; and while no exact estimate can be formed at present of the number of stations which will be required, it will probably be from 10 to 20, and will in all likelihood increase from year to year^ The course of the chain as it is to proceed at present is to be, starting from London, down the Mediterranean via Malta, to Aden, Bombay, and Singapore. From Singapore tho line will eventually branch off in two directions —one by way of Hong-' kong across the Pacific to Canada; the other, which is to be established first, to Port Darwin, Australia, and New Zealand. South Africa will also be linked in tho chain. The effect of such a step from a strategic, as well as from a commercial, point of view is as obrious as it is enormous. The Empire is converted into one sensitive entity, every outlying point of which is directly aware of whatever may be passing at the central or any other outlying point. A similar step on a smaller scale has recently been taken by the Indian Government, by which four great stations were erected connecting Simla-, Delni, Allahabad, and Calcutta. What will be the normal oommunicating range of the stations proposed in the present scheme it is impossible to say at yet, but they will undoubtedly be able to communicate at very great distances. A^ station recently established by the Marconi Company for the. Italian Government has a normal range of 10,000 miles and over; and while it may not bo necessary to make the present stations quite so far-reaching, they probably will have a range of .'three, four, or even five thousand miles. There arc, of course, already a number of stations established along the route with an ' average range of 250 miles, which arc of great value in communicating with various vessels. Theso stations will possibly be retained to carry on their present work, and the new stations erected -in addition to them.