309

A.—4

15 June, 1911.] Development of Telegraphic Communication. [9th Day. Mr. SAMUEL— cont. India, and from India, through the Straits Settlements, to Australia and New Zealand. There are already long-distance wireless stations in the hands of the Marconi Company connecting England and Canada, and for that and other reasons we consider it desirable that experiment should be made in the first instance, and that the scheme should not be established as a whole at the outset, but that we should set up a chain of six stations in England, Cyprus, Aden, Bombay, Straits Settlements, and Western Australia. From Western Australia the messages would go over the Australian land lines to Sydney, and from there by wireless, if it were desired, to New Zealand. Of course, the details of that scheme are matters for subsequent consideration. Later, South Africa would be connected either via East Africa or West Africa or by both the routes. If favourable terms could be obtained from one of the wireless telegraphy companies we are inclined to think it might be desirable if they erected the stations in the first instance. If satisfactory terms could not be obtained, our view is that the Admiralty, which has a highly efficient department capable of dealing with these problems, should undertake the erection of the stations, but in any case, by whomever erected, they should be worked by the Post Office and by the local administrations in the various Dominions. We propose that the cost should be equitably divided among the parties who are concerned, that the United Kingdom should bear the cost of the stations in England, Cyprus, and Aden ; that India should bear the cost of the station in Bombay ; that New Zealand and Australia should bear the cost of the stations in their own territories, and that the cost of the Singapore station, which probably would have very little local traffic, and which would be created almost entirely merely as a link in the chain, should be divided in equitable proportions that might be subsequently discussed. The resolution moved by Sir Joseph Ward tacks its proposal on to the resolution passed by the Conference at Melbourne on Pacific wireless telegraphy. This is a matter which lies more in the province of the Colonial Office and of the Treasury than of the Post Office, but I understand that those Departments have not yet consented to the proposal that there should be high-power stations in the Pacific, although the early establishment of some low-power stations in Fiji is contemplated ; but in any case even if high-power stations were established in that part of the Pacific, those stations could hardly be the beginning of a chain of Imperial wireless telegraphy. The cost of crossing the Pacific by a chain of stations would be very heavy; the Admiralty are of opinion that it would be of small strategic value ; the commercial value would, I am informed, be negligible, and I would suggest that it would perhaps be better for this Conference to pass a resolution dealing with Imperial wireless telegraphy in general terms rather than tacking it on to the proposals of the Melbourne Conference, which were on a much smaller scale, and which dealt with such territories as Ocean Island and the New Hebrides. Possibly Sir Joseph Ward might feel inclined to move his resolution in a slightly different form, not bringing in the Melbourne Conference, in which case the Government of the United Kingdom would be very happy to accept it. Sir JOSEPH WARD : I am quite agreeable to alter the resolution to read in this way— Mr. SAMUEL : Perhaps you will read this draft {handing the same). Sir JOSEPH WARD : Yes, I think that is all right. I was going to ask to strike the words out of this resolution, " approved at the Conference held at Melbourne in December 1909 as far as practicable," and it would then read : " That the great importance of wireless telegraphy for social, commercial, and defensive purposes renders it desirable that the scheme of wireless telegraphy be extended throughout the Empire, with the ultimate object of establishing a chain of British State-owned wireless stations which in emergency would enable the Empire to be to a great extent