a result, they increased the efficiency of their lines, according to their own claims, about 33 per cent.

When the Marconi Company in turn established themselves in Newfoundland, they also sought and obtained exclusive privileges, and our Government found that when it wanted stations established on the Labrador Coast for the convenience of our fishermen, who resort there every summer, they could only be established by arrangement with the Company.

Another danger of monopoly arises from the present situation of the English-speaking transatlantic cable companies. The Commercial Cable Company, a purely American concern, is operated from New York; the Western-Union, another American concern, has recently absorbed the Anglo-American, and this combination is also operated from New York instead of from London as previously. The "Direct" Cable was included in this group, but a few years ago was purchased by the Imperial Government, to serve as a unit in an Imperial Telegraph service to girdle the globe, but of course it can only carry a fraction of the traffic.

The Empire is thus faced with the contingency that its transatlantic cable facilities may at any time pass under foreign control. An evidence of the danger of this is afforded by the experience of the Western Union Cable Company some three or four years ago, when they tried to lay a cable from Miami, in Southern Florida, viâ the West Indies, to South America, in conjunction with some British cable company, and because of pressure from American cable interests, the American Government intervened, and by the use of warships forcibly prevented the laying of this cable until the company accepted the terms dictated by the authorities at Washington.

All of these circumstances seem to me to point the moral that in this matter every step should be taken to prevent a private monopoly being created in so important a service as wireless telegraphy is likely to become in the future relations of the different portions of the British Empire.

Early Solution of Vital Importance.

Mr. Innes: As far as India is concerned, Sir, we accept absolutely the statement in the last paragraph of the PostmasterGeneral's memorandum, namely, that the policy to be adopted in this country is entirely a matter for His Majesty's Government; but India hopes that in the near future we shall make a real advance in the construction of a big high-power station, and I do hope that when that station is in operation we shall not be held up by the lack of adequate reciprocating arrangements in this country. I should, on general Empire grounds, like to associate myself with what the Prime Minister of Australia has said, namely, that it is a matter of vital importance that some solution should be found of the difficulties which have already held up this very important matter in this country.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans: Mr. President, I think there is a general agreement amongst all of us as to what Mr. Bruce said about the necessity for better communication throughout the Empire, whether it be of news, whether it be for the migrants, or whether it be to supplement the cable service, and I entirely agree with him that we are behindhand as an Empire in wireless communications, and it is essential that leeway should be made up, and that there should be a really efficient and effective inter-communication throughout the Empire by wireless. Up to that point we are absolutely all agreed, but when we have said that, we have got to consider the means by which that service can be obtained.

Progress of British Government Station.

Perhaps I may say just one or two words about Mr. Bruce's statement with regard to the Australian position. He says that Australia is now putting up a station of 20 masts of 800 feet each, and the danger he fears is that there will be no reciprocal station in Great Britain. I have informed the Conference that as far as the British station is concerned the land is purchased, the designs are made, the masts are ordered, and I am assured that, by the end of next year, that station will be erected. I think it will be erected probably within twelve months.

The Negotiations with the Marconi Company.

Now, there are well-known difficulties in coming to an agreement with the Marconi Company. I thought we had come to an agreement in July last. I announced an agreement, or the main heads of an agreement, in the House of Commons in July last, because at that moment, after negotiation with the Marconi Company, we had settled what seemed to be all the main heads of the Pooling Agreement. The Pooling Agreement amounted to this, that the Government should put up one station, that the Marconi Company should have licences to put up two stations, and from all those three stations. there should be communications with the Empire, controlled by one controlling hand who would route the messages as the requirements of the traffic and of the various other stations of the Empire indicated.

The course of negotiation was that the Marconi Company claimed that the operating should be done from Radio Ilouse by the Marconi Company. We pointed out that that was not desirable: that the operating ought to be done by the public authority, by the Post Office, although the technical management of each station. would remain in the hands as to the two stations, of the Marconi Company, and as to the one station, of the Government; but the actual operating and routing of the messages should be done by one central authority at the Post Office; they already do it to a large extent in other wireless work, and it is a matter of common routine work.

At first Marconi's objected; they afterwards agreed. They first made the proposal that Mr. Bruce has made to-day, namely, that part of the employees should be Post Office employees and part of them Marconi employees. That was their proposal. We examined

that with a desire to meet them, but the terms of service of Government employees and the terms of service of private companies' employees are so different that you could not get them working alongside each other under any ordinary form of supervision. We pointed that out to the Marconi Company.

66

The Marconi Company then withdrew that proposal and said: 'Well, we will agree to your doing the operating, provided that we can have someone in your Office to watch the working of the business." We accepted that at once, and I said: "Yes, certainly, you are entitled to that; you are entitled to two-thirds of the receipts and you are entitled to see that the business is properly managed. By all means we will welcome your man in the Post Office for that purpose. That was in July. It seemed to be entirely agreed. Negotiations on minor details, the actual drafting of the agreements, went on between the Post Office and the Company.

The Break-down of the Negotiations.

I

But in September last Mr. Godfrey Isaacs came back and said. that he had been considering the matter and had come to the conclusion that he could not raise the money on the footing that the control of the operating was to remain with the Post Office. pointed out to him that this was a complete volte face, that he had already come to an agreement on these matters. He said he was sorry about that, but that was his decision and he could not go on. I was then thrown back from the pooling to what is known as regional distribution.

Difficulties of Regional Distribution not likely to be Serious.

I do not think that the difficulties of regional distribution are likely to be serious. Mr. Bruce fears that the Marconi Company may refuse to consider regional distribution, and that, therefore, he may lose his alternative route. He thinks that the Marconi Company may refuse to put up the stations in Canada.

Mr. Bruce: No, no.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans: Of course they may.

Mr. Bruce: That is not the point I am making at all. I am assuming that the regional agreement is accepted. Supposing it were accepted, then I say that the Canadian Company might refuse to put up the two stations they are talking of in Montreal and in Vancouver. I am not saying it is right. Please understand me. I am merely putting what may happen.

Pressure exercised by Marconi Company.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans: That would be a form of the pressure being brought to bear on us by the Marconi Company. When you talk of "the company," or when South Africa talks of the company," we have got to remember that it is the Marconi Company all the time; they are all of them, directly or indirectly, controlled by the one hand, which can tell the Canadian Company :

"Well, you had better say that if the regional distribution is accepted we shall not go on with the Canadian stations." That is a form of pressure which is being brought to bear on us now, and if I may speak quite freely, we have either got to give way to that pressure, in which case you have got a monopoly in the hands of the Marconi Company, or we have got to resist that pressure. If the Marconi Company declare their policy to be that they will not put up stations in any part of the Empire unless they are given a free run throughout the Empire we shall know where we are, and we shall understand that nothing short of what would in practice, if not in form, be a monopoly, will satisfy them.

The Present Offer to the Company.

Now, the offer which I have made to the Marconi Company, and which they have not yet refused, is that we will put up our Government station for communication with South Africa and Canada, and they can put up two stations for communication anywhere else in the Empire. They have not refused that. What they have been doing is to put pressure by propaganda upon all of you, because cach one of you has admitted, each one of you has said, that, while not influenced by it, attempts have been made to enlist your sympathies and your advocacy on the side of the Marconi Company.

Mr. Bruce: Might I just interrupt? I must say, in fairness to the Marconi Company, that they have not tried to influence me. I sent for Mr. Godfrey Isaacs myself, and had about half-an-hour with him, and I sent for him again. They have not approached me.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans: The real point we have to consider is, are we prepared, or are we not, to give a virtual monopoly of wireless communication to one company. That is the question.

Mr. Massey: There can be only one answer to that question. It is in the negative.

Sir Laming Worthington-Evans: I know your answer, and I think I know Sir Patrick McGrath's answer from what he has said. He has had a peculiar experience of monopoly and litigation, and I am sure he does not want to repeat it in wireless.

Government or Private Monoply alike Undesirable.

I believe

Now, I do not believe that this question is insoluble. that the Marconi Company will recognise that either the pooling arrangement or the original allocation is a fair offer on the part of the Government and that a monopoly is out of the question. I believe that will happen. If it does not happen, the British Government will have to consider whether it should not put up further stations. That is the alternative. As we stand now, we have a super-station going up with twelve masts. It may be that that station could be extended, or another station would have to be put up, but I do not want either a monopoly in a private firm or in the Government. I should prefer to see the two working

together; I believe there is a quite unknown, quite unrealised, almost unimagined, development still to come in wireless; and I want the two agencies, the Government service as well as the private enterprise, to combine for the purpose of securing for Great Britain and the Empire the very, very best service that can be got. After further discussion, Mr. Bruce proposed:

“That this Imperial Economic Conference affirms the importance of establishing as quickly as possible an efficient Imperial Service of Wireless Communication, and is of opinion that the several Governments of the Empire should take immediate action to remove any difficulties which are now delaying the accomplishment of this, while providing adequate safeguards against the subordination of public to private interests."

This was carried unanimously.

CABLE AND WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS OF THE

I.

EMPIRE.

Memorandum by the Post Office (I.E.C. (23)—7).

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF EXISTING CABLE ROUTES.

Two main sets of routes start out from Great Britain :

(a) The trans-Atlantic routes, and

(b) The Eastern system of cables-which between them serve practically the whole of the British Empire.

(a.) Trans-Atlantic Routes.

There are fourteen cables between the British Isles and North America, some landing (this side) in the Irish Free State and the rest in Cornwall; and all landing on the other side in British territory— either in Newfoundland or in Canada-though many of them are extended by shorter sections to the United States.

Two of these trans-Atlantic cables, the "Imperial Cables," are owned by the British Government. The other twelve cables are all worked, and most of them also owned, by American companies.

Both the Imperial Cables are worked direct between London and Halifax. They both land near Penzance (Cornwall); but they are laid by different routes, one having a relay station at Harbour Grace (Newfoundland), and the other at Fayal, in the Azores. (Further information concerning the Imperial Cables is furnished in Section II.)

Besides serving Newfoundland and Canada and forming a link in the westward route to Australia and New Zealand, the transAtlantic cables connect at Halifax with the cables of the Halifax and Bermuda and Direct West India Companies (two affiliated British companies), which provide an all-British route viâ Bermuda and Turks Island to Jamaica, where it joins the West India and Panamá