IMPERIAL TELEGRAPHS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1154, 15 June 1911, Page 6

IMPERIAL TELEGRAPHS.

$ L_ Mr. Charles Bright, .tho well-known cable expert, in a paper on Imperial telegraphs, rea<l at a meeting of the Koyal Colonial Institute, said that in his opinion a groat advanco would bo made in inter-Imperial communications if an all--round Imperial cable tariff of Is. 9d., or even Gd., could' ba put into operation. He. imagined th.it the private companies would he prepared to meet Government suggestions in the matter if negotiations wwe pursued on right lines and in a suitable spirit. "I would venture to urge," he continued, "that there is.every justification for State-owned and worked lines of communication between the various corners of the Empire, where such are needed for strategic as well as other high State reasons. The fact is that in an emergency a battleship, or nn army, away from Hie required spot—for want of telegraphic communication—might as well be at- the bottom of the 6oa. Then, again, with' the 'present food supply of this country so seriously out of proportion to the population, absolutely secret an dinvulnerable communicating links with tho wheatcrowing areas in our Oversea Dominions become every day moro vital to the nation it we are to guard against the chances of being starved out by foreign Powers—bearing iu mind that we import Mur loaves out of every-five, we eat,-