ALL-RED CABLE ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1393, 20 March 1912, Page 5

ALL-RED CABLE ROUTE.

MISSING ATLANTIC ROUTE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Auckland, March 19. The possibility of establishing an AllRed cable service between England and Australia and New Zealand, especially in reference to press messages, was discussed at length by the conference of tho Australasian Provincial Press Association today. Mr. R. M'Millan (Sydney) moved: "That this -conference endorses the resolutions carried by tho Imperial Tress Conference and the Associated Chambers of Commerce in support of a national cable across the Atlantic, ,- thus completing tho All-Reu cable route." Some years ago, Mr. M'Millan said, a cable was laid across tho Pacific at a cost of .£2,000,000, allegedly as an "AllRed" cable. It was supposed to give cheaper press communication, but, as a matter of fact, messages put on at Sydney went to Vancouver and thence by tho Canadian-Pacific Railway Telegraph to Montreal. At that point they were transferred to an American- cablo* company, which delivered them in London. The Pacific Cable Board had uoioihce in London, and tho All-Red route was a delusion and a snare. Having leased a lino from the C.P.Ii-.,. the Pacific Cablo Board had a line as far as Montreal, but no farther. They wanted one now from London to Montreal, but were not able to get it. The only hope for an AllRed route was in a cable delivering right ill Canada. At present there were seven or eight- Atlantic cables. They were all combined, and, incrediblo as it might seem, not one of them belonged to England. Messages from England to Australia could not cross the Atlantic except by an American cable. He had been told that he was wasting his breath in Engi land because a Liberal Government would not carry out what a Conservative Government had started. Tho union of tho Empiro by means of cheap cables was prevented by a monopoly of cable lines by wealthy people. Mr. T. Temperley (Ballina, N.S.W.) said the maintenance and working expenses wild other charges of the Pacific cablo left an annual loss of J!60,000. Australia paid one-third of that, New Zealand and Canada one-third each, and England the rest. The New Zealand contribution was between c£Booo and -WilOO a year. That cablo had brought about a great reduction in both commercial and press cable rales, although it only extended from Australasia as far as Canada. The Pacific Cable Board having leased a line from tho C.P.R. had virtually extended the All-Red line as far as Montreal. Numerous Imperial Conferences had urged the completion of tho All-Red line, and tho cost of that work was estimated to bo only .£500,000, one-fourth of the cost of a Dreadnought, and yet that paltry sum asked for by Canada and Australasia was not forthcoming because some extraordinary influences blocked the 1 The motion was put' and carried unanimously.