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As a Btndy of what we may fairly enongb call an ansncoess- f al intrigue, we oommend to the attention of oar readers a report printed in Jane last by order of the Speaker of the Cape of Good Hope Parliament, headed " Copies of Com- manications that have paaaed between the Oovernment of the Cape Colony, the Imperial Government, and the £istern Teiegrai>h Company, on the sabjeot of a Deep-Sea Cable vid the Cxp^t ^i^l^ extension to Aaatralia.** The frank andaclty of some of the proposals advanced by the Eastern Telegraph Compwy and its backers, would come as an amusing relief in the perosal of these letters, were it only new, but for those who have any knowledge of the methods by which in the Eist and in Australasia these companies mtve gradually acquired their present monopoly, the freshness of the style has altogether disappeared. To lay the matter clearly before those who may not care to wade through these letters, we m%j state shortly that they refer to certain proposals made by the Eutern, Eastern Extension, and Eastern and South African Telegraph Com- panies, to the Imperial Government, and to the Govern- ments of Cape Colony and of the Australian Colonies. Of these cable companies, the Eistern, and the Eastern and South African are practically one in all but name, and are both under the able management of Mr. J. Denison Pender, who is also a director of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, the interests of which are most oloselv allied with those of the other two companies, the Marquis of Tweed^le being chairman of this, ae well as of the Eastern Company. The oommnnity of interests above indicated obvionsly calls for joint action in cases of need. Now, for some years past (since abont the time of the Transvaal diffionlty), the tele- graph lines to the Gape and Sonth Africa generally, have given much trouble, and caused much dissatisfaction, owing to the freqaent breakages ; these lines mn along both the east and west coasts of Africa, the Eastern and Sonth African owning all those on the east, and a portion of these on the west coast. This conpany, therefore, suffers both in parse and credit, owing to the freqaent interruptions, which besides, might possibly make the laying of an opposition cable necessary, thus entailing serious competition, reduced rates, and consequent loss. Saoh a position clearly requires remedy. The allied Eastern Extension Company also is not free from the serious danger of competition, should a cable over which they have no control be laid between Australia and dioada. This also requires attention. The papers now published by the Cape of Good Hope Parliament expose the manner in which the combined companies hope to find relief from the troubles above indicated, but not at their own expense. About the beginning of this year frequent reference was made in the press, many paragraphs appeared concerning an " All-British cable to Australia, via the Cape, and touching at various places en route^ which, in return for ** certain privileges," woald be laid by the comjpanies above mentioned. The nature of these privileges is given in a Utter dated March 22nd, 1897, addressed by Mr. J. Denison Pender to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this letter, after referring to the demand for *' additional telegraphic com- munication between Great Britain and the Australasian colonies, quite independent of the Mediterranean ronte,*' Mr. Pender proposes that the combined companies should provide '* cables between England, the Cape, and Australia, touching only at Gibraltar, Sierra Leone, Ascension, St. Helena, Durbar, Mauritius, Rodriquez, and Cocos." In consideration of the above, the " privileges " asked for are the following: — £25,000 annually for 20 years from the Imperial Government; an extension by the Australasian Governments, for at least 10 years, of the annual £32,400, which they have been paying to the Eastern Extension Com- pany for the last 19 years; also a present of a double- wire landline (abont 1,000 miles long) between Cape Town and Durban, from the Governments of Cape Colony and Natal, a landline which, as the Postmaster-General of Cape Colony points out, is equivalent to a perpetual subsidy of £12,000 per annum. An underground landline service from London 1 to Cornwall is also to be provided ; this will ooet the Imperial Ooyerament at leaet £50,000. In addition to the above, it is stipulated that an annual Bubsidy of £82,000 for 20 years shall be paid if a branch cable be laid from the Seychelles to Ceylon, touching at Dle^o Garcia on the way.* The financial side of the proposal having been set forth, Mr. Pender asks for " an undertaking by the Governments con- cerned that, for a fixed jperiod, they will not subsidise any opposition line connecting any of the places served at present by the associated compiniee. On their side, the companies to undertake to increase their cables when- ever necessary to meet public requirement?. This prin- ciple was, to some extent, formally recognised by the Imperial Government, with the approval of the Austra- lasian Colonies, when the Eistem Extension Company's Singapore-Labnan-Hong-KoDg cable was laid in 1894." The qualifying words, "to Eome extent," are very much needed here, as Article 7 ia the agreement between Lord Ripon (then Secretary of State for the Colonies), and the Eiistern Extension, &c.. Company, concerning the Singapore- Labuaii-Hong-Kong cable runs as follows : — " Nothing in this Agreement shall affect the right of Her Majesty's Government to grant to the Government of the Dominion of Canada, or of any Colony in Australia, permission to lay, or cause to b3 laid, a submarine telegraph cable connecting Hong Kong with Canada or with Australia, provided such connection with Canada or Australia be completed within five years from the date of this Agreement, after which date the exception in this Article mentioned ehall become null and void." In Article 4, Her M:ijesty*s Government reserve the right to permit the laying of cables by others, if " such new cables should in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government be found necessary in the public interest of Great Britain, Hong Eong, the Straits Settlement, or Labuan, or in the general interests of international telegraphic communication." These quotations, as well as the fact that no subsidy is mentioned in the Singapore-Labuan-Hong-Eong cable agreement, show that it is always well to verify references. This attempt to confirm the existing monopoly of the allied companies would, of course, if successful, have the I ffect of relieving both the Eistem and South African, and * We hear that the cable between Mantitios and the Seychelles Islands, for the laying of which the Eastern and Booth African Telegraph Oompany is receiving a large annual subsidy from the Imperial and Indian Qoyemments, is at present totally interrupted. 4 the Eastern Extension Oompanies, from the awkward position in which they at present find themselves. The Eastern and South African Company woald be provided — ht Govern- ment cosb — with an efficient service to tiie Gape and Natal, and wonid also be freed from the danger of a competing cable. The Eastern Extension Company woald no longer have to count with a competing cable from Canada to Australia, and would, besides becoming independent of the ricketty landlines across Australia, also ensure the continuance of the colonial eubsidy of £82,400 annuallv, which would otherwise lapse next vear. The suggested metnod of securing a monopoly, although sufficiently efficacious, and reaching the limits of any demand to which England could by any possibility accede, is not so thorough as that adopted by these allied companies in their dealings with other countries. For instance, to secure their interests in China against a com- peting American cable from San Francisco via Honolulu and the Spanish islands in the Pacific, the Eastern Extension Company, in return for providing an efficient service to Manila from Hong Kong, (by moving their cable direct into the town) exact from Spain a prolongation for 20 years, of an absolutely exclusive right to lay cables from Manila to Hong Kong, besides the landing rights on all the Spanish possessions in the Pacific. These rights, owing to the result of the war, are probably now of no value. To turn again to the letters relating to the proposals of the allied companies, we find that, under date of November 12lh, 1897, to the Chancellor of Exchequer, the Marquis of Tweed- dale repeats in a modified forin that portion of Mr. Pender*s letter which relates to carrying the cable from Gibraltar to Cape Town (the subsidy figuring at £20,000 per annum), also the request for landlines from London to Cornwall. The clause intended to shut out competition also recurs, but as regards the line to Australia, Lord Tweeddale writes : — " This proposal, if approved, would leave for after arrange- ment the continuation of the cables from Sooth Africa to West Australia, and, in the meantime, would provide the best alternative means of strengthening cable communication with our African colonies by a cable landing throughout on British territory only, as well as placing the important islands of Ascension and St. Helena in telegraphic communication with Great Britain. "The triplication of cable communication with South Africa has been decided upon, not on account of any abnormal development of traffic, but because it has always been the p3licy of these companies to ensure the mainten- ance of communication between all points in their system, ' more espeoially between Great Britain and her important colonies ; and althoagh it is improbable that with two lints of cable commnDication between Sooth Africa and Great Britain the telegraph service between these places would ever be totally interrupted for a long period, yet it ia con- sidered that with three lines of commanication the fear of total interraption wonld be entirely removed." The extension from the Oape to Australia is thus shelved for a time. The admission that for satisfactory telegraph service a third line is requisite, quits justifies the opinion expressed in a letter of March 22nd last from the Postmaster- General of Gape Oolony, who says, "I would wi^h to remark that, in my opinion, no subsidy should be given by the Gape in connection with the revised scheme, as the traffic receipts at the present time appear to warrant the laying of an addi- tional cable on commercial grounds alone, without the aid of a subsidy from the Gape, or Natal, or any State or colony in South Africa. At all events, if the Eastern Gompany does not lay a third cable it will b3 worth while for some other company to do so, and this would lead to competitiiin in rates which would undoubtedly ba bmeficial to South Africa." The opinion thus expressed by Mr. French in this letter is justified by the information given in his note attached to a telegram from the Agent-General of the Gaps to Sir Gordon Sprigg, under date March 9th, from which we q[not9: — "I have not as yet been able to obtain reliable information as to the total value of the South African cable traffic during the year 1897, but although it will not probably (owing to the depression in the Transvaal) reach the very high total of £300,000 attained in 189C, 1 have little doubt that it will exceed considerably the limit of £180,000 fixed by the late Sir John Pender as a paying revenue for the existing cables." Mr. French, in this note, also protests against giving a practical monopoly to the Eastern Gompany, by which they would be in a position to refuse that reduction of the present rates, which will be expected from the com- pany in the near future. From the evidence given above, and from the notoriously unsatisfactory condition of the lines to the Gape, it seems clear that the Eastern and South African Gompany and its friends have a duty incumbent on them, not only to provide a third cable, but also to provide it for their own safety ; free of subsidy or conditions. The gains from the cable traffic, as pointed out by Mr. French, are more than sufficient to warrant this, and as the only possible alternative route for such a cable is via Ascension and St. Helens, it is monstrous that these companies should call on Her Majesty*s Govern- ment for aniaianoe in carrying oat a work which their own commercial interests absolntelj require. That these companies are not justified in the claim which they make for St-p^c assistance, the following figures will prove np to the hilt. Apart from the revenae derived from trafiio, and to which Mr. French makes allusion, the Eastern and South African Company already receives, almost entirely from British sources, subsidies amounting to £88,000 per auLum. The African Direct, and West African Telegraph Companies, in which the allied companies are large shareholders, draw from the British and various other Governments, annual subsidies amounting to about £65,000. Thus, alto- gether, the total at present paid in subsidies to the African cable ring amounts to more than £150,000 yearly ; and they have already received in this way, (|aite apart fiom their traffic earnings, a sum excoediner £2,000,000. We do not inclnr^<) here the Kitstern Extension Company, which we propose to deal with in a future article, but will only remark that this partner in the scheme we have here exposed, has, during its ezibtence, drawn well over £1,000,000 h subsidies, besides having a reserve fund of more than £800,000 in hand. That the proposals made by these allied companies were even thought worthy of consideration by a Departmental CooMuittee, appointed by the Treasury, proves nothing beyond the influence which they possess in official circles. We arc glad to notice that in the draft instructions to this Committee the following occurs : " The Committee will understand that in no case can an unqualified guarantee agaimt subsidised competition be given." After the collapse of that part of the scheme which entailed a prolongation of the cable from the Cape to Australia, the Agent-General, in a telegram to the Premier of Cape Colony, asks : j^f All-British cable stops at Cape, and proceeds no further, what contribution or subsidy are yon prepared to offer — Committee awaits reply.*' The reply of Sir Gordon Sprigg, dated May 15th last, is perhaps the best which could have been made to the impudent demands of these "sturdy beggars," and runs as follows: — "In letter, December 29tb, company offered to lay cable without South African subsidy. As present traffic warrants third cable on basis of revenue laid down by Sir John Pender, feel sure South African contributories to subsidy would not entertain question of increase without satisfactory guarantee regarding reduced rates, as monopolists, company must make concessions to meet legitimate public requirements." Ill II. We Luve laid before our readers aa coDcisely a? may bt>, tie titory of the futile bttempts made by the allied coippiDi«B (the EiBtcro, Eastern Extensioo, and Eistern and South African Telegraph Oompanies), to confirm their moaopolies, and to relieve themselves from the impending danger of com- petition — at the expense of the nation ; we have shown how this very prosperous clique has failed in this endeavour, in spite of tbe sympathetic interest which they have generally managed to inspire amorgat a certain class of ofllcials. We omitted, however, to fiiiHiciently emphasise the fact that in the letter to the Ohanc< ''or of the Exchequer, dated Novem- ber 12tb, 1897, acd iu which the Manjuis of Twecdda'e leaves in abeyance thu prolongation of the cab!e beyond the Cape, to Austral' the ciuuae i.>< ended to quash conapetition is leit unchan<3fed. If tliis clause had been acceded to, it would have prevented lie Government from assisting by subsidy^ anyone wliu might desire to compete, on equal terms, with these already subsidised oompanies, in either Africa, India, Ohina, oc Australasia. This absurd requef^t was summarily dismissed in the draffy said that '* They had spoon- fed the company, and the more they fed it the more spoon-fed it wanted to be." A strong feeling in favour of an alternative cable via the Pacific to Canada was al^o shown, and in reference to this Mr. Gavan Duffy said : "That project was entertained very fairly, and at one time it seemed as though the line would be immediately constructed. But for some reaEoa or other a blight had come over it, and they did not now hear of it." The cause of this " blight " will bear Fome examination. In the first place, it is only right to give the allied com- panies credit for the manner in which they have so long, and heretofore so successfully, managed to delay the estab- lishment of a competing cable across the Pacific. It is no more than natural that the Eastern Extension Company should strongly object to the lapsing of subeidiep, and to the loss of about 50 per cent, of the revenue which thf y now derive from Australasian traffic, which in 1897 amounted to a total of some £580,000. With this position in view, it is easy to understand the opinion expressed by Sir Stndford Fleming, who, in his very temperate report to the Canadian Government on the evidence given in the Colonial Office before the Pacific Cable Commission at the 10 end of 1896,* expresses himself as follows in reference to this company : — "It may indeed be held that the company has always asspmed an attitude of hostility to the aspirations of Canada in respect to the proposed cable, and have for years streon- onsly opposed all efiforts to advance her own and Imperial interests on the Pacific in connection with the anion of Australasia and British North America telegraphically. Be that as it may, I can only repeat the view I have often ex- Sressed, that if the exigencies of the Empire, as a whole, emand the establishment of a national work which will interfere with the operations of this private company, every reasonable consideration should be extended to that company by those upon whom it has just claims. But it cannot be supposed that the public interests must be entirely set aside in order that the company may for ever continue to receive large dividends. I will again refer to the position of the Eistern Extension Company, and suggest a means by which, as it appears to me, the matter can be adjusted in the spirit of justice and fairness." Sir Sandf ord Fleming also points out that " AH doubt as to the practicability of laying an electric cable from the western coast of Canada to the Australasian colonies, touching only on islands in the possession of Great Britain, is now entirely set at refet. The best authorities known were examined, and not one of them expreesed the least misgiving on this point." In this report reference is also made to what has been one of the most serious causes of obstruction in the progress of the Pacific cable project. Sir Siudford Fleming writes : " I have pointed out in what respect there is a general agree- ment in the views expressed by the several gentlemen examined by the Committee. I shall now refer to an extra- ordinary diversity of opinion. In this diversitv I find ranged on one side the agents the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company and two ofiicers of the Post Office Department. On the other side, all the highest authorities on electrical science, together with the managers of two important ocean cables, whose evidence was submitted to the Committee. ** The two officers were Mr. J. C. Limb, secretary, and * B)turn to «n addreu of the Honw of Oommons (Ouuda), dated April 18lh, 1893, for a copy of the Report of the Committee ap- pointed by the Imperial Qovemment ia 1896 to ooniider theqaestion of a telegraph cable between Canada and Aastralaiia; also of any repotti or oorreipondenoe to the Canadian Qovemment from the Canadian repreientativeioo said Committee, or Sir Bandford Flemiog in regard to the same labject. 11 and dated •P- Btion any ■a the i min g Mr. W. n. Preeoe, engineer-in-chief and electrician to the General Post Office, London. Their evidence in the main agrees with that of the gentlemen who appeared on behalf of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company, whose views are adverse to the establishment of the proposed Pacific cable. " The antagonistic evidence is volnminoas. If examined, it will be seen that the gentlemen who enbrnitted it are sub- stantially of one mind on many subjects. The tone and substance of their observations leaves the impression that they do not look npon the Pacific cable as a necessary or desirable undertaking, and that if established as designs, it would be inadequate in capacity and a heavy burden on the public exchequer. I could not venture (here) to tike up the time necessary to refute the whole evidence." Apparently these remarks are principally intended to app^y to the preposterous e&timate which is contained in a report dat^ July 5th, 1893, published in the Proceedings of the Ottawa Conference. Concerning this estimate. Sir Sandford Fleming writes : *' We have thus presented to ua the estimate of the officers of the Poet Office Department, amounting in all to £3,264,000. The Oinadian Govern- ment has a lond fide tender to carry out in a complete and satisfactory manner precisely the same work for £1,517,000. "What can be said of such a discrepancy as this? I entertain no doubt as to the great ability, the varied in- formation, and the value of the Eervices of these gentlemen. I can only regret that, in my extremely limited knowledge of them, I should be so unfortunate as to be driven to the ccnclnsion that, however important the offices they fill, their importance does not make the occapants of the office infal- lible. In short, I am constrained to form the opinion that they have made a grave mistake, and that to this mibtake, and to the unfortunate letter of Mr. Lamb in which it is contained, may be traced the Eeeming antagonism to a Pacific cable, which will be found in the evidence recently submitted." That the adjective which we have used to describe this estimate is quite warranted, will ba at once admitted by anyone with technical knowledge who reads the report in question. The mere suggestion that the core of the cable mentioned should have equal ^eights of copper and gutta- percha (940 lbs. of each) is quite enough, without going further into the matter, to show that the rep3rt is utterly valueless. It is obvious that such a report as that above referred to, being officially circulated, must have had a most prejudicial effect as far as the Pacific cable project is oon- oernod. We also find that, as far back as September, 1888, 12 i|i lii:' in a minate on a letter from the then Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Enntsford) the following ooonrs, above the fiignature of Sir Oharles Todd, who was thtn, and still oottlnnes to be, Postmaster-General of South Australia :— ''In face of the known difficulties arising from coral reefs, and the enormous depth of the Pacific along the route pro- posed, estimated at 12,000 fathoms in some places," &c., &o. After this display of ignorance of a subject, on which his opinion is conveniently accepted by the Government of South Australia, it is not surprising to find in the same minute the following assertion advanced by Sir Oharles Todd : — " As the Government are aware, I have given this Eubject very great and careful consideration, more so, per- hapf, than anyone else." In all probability the referecce made by this Postmaster to the " enormous depths of the Pacific " can be traced to a blunder in the evidence given by another Post Office official before the Colonial Conference of 1887. We cannot but attribute a handsome share of the mieunde: '':andin8:B and false reports, to the delay in the survey of the Pacific cable route, which was unanimously recommended by the delegates to the Colonial Confer- ence held in London in 1887, and which is not yet com- pleted. The Hydrographfr (Admiral Sir W. J. Wha:- ton) has in his report dUtd February 28. h, 1887, 10 years ago ! (figures corrected to 1892) expressed him- self as follows :— " My general conclusion is that if the Government is to aid in a substantial manner any scheme for multiplying the lines of communication to Australia, it should b3 in the direction of triplicating, by means of sea cables, those portions of the existing route which are now duplicated by foreign landlines." In view of such an opinion it is not surprising to find that the survey recommended by the Colonial Conference is of slow accomplishment. We may say here that when the Hydrographioal Dcpaitment of the United States undertook the survey for the American cable, soon to be laid from Sin Francisco to Honolulu, the work (about a third of that rt quired for the Pacific cable scheme) was very fully carried out in three months. Besides these serious stumbling blocks in the way of the Pucifio cable, we must remember that in some of the Con- ferences held, some of the represei tatives had no special or t< chnical knowledge of the subject ; thus we find that in the Colonial Conference in Ottawa in 1894, the Hon. Tfcomas Playford, representing South Australia, emphatically asset t