LAND LINE TO INDIA.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20175, 2 March 1931, Page 9

LAND LINE TO INDIA.

TELEGRAPH REPLACED BY WIRELESS. i HISTORIC SERVICE TO CEASE. (*2imn orncuti wiMfctts) (Recfeived Mdrth Ifefc, &.& p.m.) RUGBY, February 37. - To-morrow the gr'eat telegraph line known as the "Indo routd/' closed dow'n. The line fan 6000 miles from London through German Poland, Russia, and Persia,. to the head of the Persian Gulf, and thence by submarine cable to India. On Sunday, the land lines will boeoind the poßlsessitfn of the countries through which • thsy. (pass, and the s'ea, ,enblQ will coms under the ownership of the Britidh. Imperial and International Corrtmunibations Company. / The line wafe opened 61 years agoto ensure an alternative route to India in event of an interruption to the Eastern Telegraph Company's cables, but the beam wireless hfee made its continued use tmnecaesaiy. . The .history of the maintenance of the line through Persia by thd IndoEuropean Telegraph Department of thd Indian GoVernmfent is full" of tales of exciting adventures and fine exompes of devotion to duty, fry officett, of the department and by- ~ Persian linesmen. During the: war the' Whole: of the telegraphic cotoimunicatiobs. )&f the Mesopotamia Field Forai, both with Ihdia And With England, pulsed over the department's cables ifi the Persian Gulf, and enormous . traffic wAs* dealt with without a breakdown or. undue The departments. officers al-o leaving their stfttittti in Persia with regrets, which are, shared by* the Persians, with whom they, hate , established relations of trust and friendship. '