CABLE DELAYS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 226, 18 June 1919, Page 8

CABLE DELAYS

EMBARRASSING TO BUSINESS

PLEA FOR REDRESS

CAUSES OF THE TROUBLE

The grievance long felt: by the commercial community regarding delays in the transmission of cablegrams between New Zealand and the "United Kingdom, and in less degree between New Zealand ans America, was brought under tho notice of the Hon. \Y. D. S. MacDouald, Acting-Postmaster-General yesterday, by a deputation representing the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand.

Mr. -H. D. Vickery, secretary of the Associated Chambers, introduced the matter, in the absence of tho president and vice-president. He said that the delay in the transmission was a matter on which the Minister would no doubt have received communications from most of the principal chambers of commercc in New Zealand. He thought that the question was perhaps the most important concern of the commercial community to-day. Fifteen or twenty years agb, probably the bulk of the business of the country was done by letter, ]>ut nowadays all business was done bv cable, export business as well as import business. The position was to-day that export commodities, except those controlled under the Imperial inquisition scheme, were subject to early and rapid fluctuation in price. Cablegrams were sent dealing with quotations. It probably took eight or nine days for a cablegram to reach England, and anything to twelve days before a reply could be returned to New Zeala'ml.. In the meantime the business was often lost.' The same state of things applied to the import. business. Many of the activities held up during the war were now being resumed, and there was a heavy demand for goods. Many of the local bodies were calling for tenders for supplies required for tho prosecution of works, but OAving to these cable delays firms were prevented from tendering because they could not get prompt information as to prices. This state of things had been going on for four or five years, and the deputation had come, to ask whether anything could be done to improve mntters. ; . A World-wide Difficulty. Always they had received the -reatest courtesv from the Postal authorities, but the reply had always been that the cables were dongested. Ho bclioved that the authorities had made represntalions to the Pacific Cable Board ol their behalf. However, the position remained as bad as ever, and they had come to ask whether something could not be done to improve it. Mr. JlacDonald: We have nothing to do with it at this end of the world. This complaint does not apply only to tho Dominion. This difficulty is absolutely world-wide. Mr. Vickerv said that he understood this, but af the same time the commercial community was suffering a gtleat deal, and the chambers of commence thought that if they did nothing in the matter nothing would be done. Would tho position be eased if the business people used cablo codes? Could not some of the unimportant Press messages be cut out? It .seemed to him that without loss to the community soma of them might he held back. He did not know how the. position could be remedied; but he knew the position existed. They hoped that in some way the Minister would be able to help them in some way to. secure, more rapid dispatch for commercial cables.

A Vital Matter. Mr. C. M. Luke, president of the Wellington Central Chamber of Commerce, said that his chamber felt that this matter was vital to the interests of the Dominion. Anything that tended to retard the flow of trade at this time must be considered a. seriaus matter, for the people of New Zealand would be able to bear the'heavy burden of taxation only if the wheels of commerce wero allowed to run smoothly. He said that a great deal of the matter coming over the cables was not vital to the Dominion, even to the readers of the Dominion, and they wero really at a loss to know what was holding up the interests of the Dominion at this time in this way. They felt that it\was for the Government to do all it could to alleviate the position, and that if representations were made to tho Imperial Government these difficulties would bo removed. Mr. J. T. Martin said that during tho last few days cablegrams from New York and London had shown delays of from seven to nine days in reaching New Zea. land, and the information his firm received from all quarters was that cabled offers could not bo kept open owing to the long delays in receiving This was prejudicing the business of the Dominion very seriously, and hampering the trade of the, country, and at the same time preventing'merchants of this country from realising their stocks at a time when it was most, important that they should do so. He spoke <of other inconveniences suffered by business people owing to cable delays. He was sure that the Government and tho people realised thu importance of ths matter.

The Use of Codes, The difficulty was to make any reasonable suggestion to alleviate the trouble. One 'that lie would s make was that, the free use of private codes should be pcrmitted. M''' MauDonald: As soon as possible that will be done. If you get the raiser to sign that paper you will get it at once. ilr. Martin suggested that the rse of codes v/oulti reduce the text of cables. Business people had reduced the text of their cables as much as possible, lie hoped that the Government was doing the same with his cables. In any case, ha wijuld suggest that the O'ovsri.wW might do this, to the Home Government might help them, although at the present time this seem very hopeful. Several other speaKers mentioned the cases of their own buiiiesses. One speaker mentioned the flax business,. saying that all trading in liax was done by cable, and owing to rapid fluctuation iii the market business in 2vew "-Zealand hemp was being lost, ana other ptoduOts of other countries, such as sisal and Manila, were cutting out the New Zealand fibre. It was urged veiy strongly by Mr. Jolly 011 behalf of the bank's that the bulk of cable messages would be reduced very much'if business peoolo «ere allowed to use private codes again. Tll banking cablegrams it would be possible to reduce the number of words by three-quarters il' tlicy could use their own codes. '

MINISTER IK REPLY

GOVERNMENT NOT INACTIVE. The Minister said that the Government of this country and he as PostmasterGenerai had been in constant-communi-cation with Britain and with the management 6f tho cable, companies, pointing out the seriousness of tho j.resent position lo the business of he dominion. He thought that they had done all that was possible. As far as he could ascertain there was little hope of relief until some of the other cables were restored, to' relieve the congestion 011 the Pacific cable, which now had to carry a)i tho Australasian traffic. , Tho Minister read the lollowing statement of the position:— Owing to the interruption to the cables which undo;' normal conditions carry (he traffic between Great Britain', India, and the East, such traffic has had lo he diverted lo llie A us- ■ (ralian and New Zealand unite via ('ape Town and Durban. This interruption abo affects • he Eastern cable route from Tort Do.rwin. Australia. This leaves the Pacific, cable roule only for traffic to New Zealand., For some months past the Eastern Extension Company has been compelled to refuse tho acceptance of fully-paid traffic from Great Britain for this Dominion, but has been accepting traffic at tile deferred rate subject to lieavv delay. The burden placed upon the Pacific route has caused «.heavy blockoge of cables to accumulate at Banificld. the .Vancouver end of Iho ' cable. This is unavoidable, as the traffic is in excess of the capacity of tho cable, although work is carried on without intermission day and night.

It was hoped tftat with the restoration of somo of the cn'bles near England the burden upon the Pacific route would have been considerably lightened, but' witli (lie break in the cable route to India the position remained practically unaltered, The restoration of the commercial Pacific cable between Han Francisco and Hawaii does not affect our traffic. It would relieve the route to India and the East of America traffic to those places, but the volume would pro-" bably not be great. The Pest and Telegraph Department has been in constant touch with the Pacific Cable Bonrd's and the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company's representative.':, and it may softly be accepted that everything possible has been done to relieve the position. It has been .said 1 hat Government and Press traffic seriously delays commercial cables. Some timo ago the British Government issued instructions to all its . Departments that the ca'bles were to be used only for the most urgent and important work, and nil messes were to lie cut down to a minimum. The Government traffic from New Zealand homewards is also confined to matters of urgency, ft should bo noted that the time of transmission of fjill rate commercial traffic to Great Britain is 2-1 hours. With regard to the Press: it would probably be noticed that a very large portion of published telegrams show a very long delay. The few items that ore up-to-date have reference to matters of special public interest, and T am assured 110 undue preference is given to the transmission of Press matter. The Prist and Telegraph Department has been in' frequent communication with the Pacific Cable Board and the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company regarding the delay on cable traffic, and would point out that'the actual cause is due to circumstances over which the Department has 110 control. Eastern Routes,

The manager of the Pacific Cable Board reports under date June 7:— / The Postmaster-General, London, states tho early restoration of further cables is anticipated. Our Bamfield station has on hand 4582 messages and 10,000 words I'iess; . and on June 10 farther reports-.—Eegret congestion has not improved, and no relief can be expected until the Eastern Company's routes are fully restored and able to materially assist with the Australian traffic from the United Kingdom. The restoration of the commercial Pacific cable docs not affect the position of the cable traffic to England. "I have here," continued the Minister, "a copy of a telegram from the manager in the Pacific, Pacific Cable Board, to the Secretary, General Post' Office, dated June 16-.— i I

The traffic delay from the United Kingdom and America is now four to five days; anticipate this will be substantially reduced by Wednesday,having regard to week-end opportunities. The Canadian returns, dated Saturday, show 2300 messages on hand, in addition to ten thousand words Government and Press. Tho homeward direction continues free from congestion. Our head office, Lopdon, is kept posted daily in re-, gard to the situation. The Eastern route is still not accepting full-rate traffic for Australasia. In Australian direction traffic shown to be passing over Pacific cable at rate of six hundred and forty words per'hour. This is above the estimated cttrryingcapacity of the cable. I have no suggestion to submit to the Minister. The situation is built up by the Pacific Cable Board carrying the whole of the Australasian traffic, including Government business. The condition can only bo satisfactorily met when the Eastern are able to give normal assistance. Treble Rates and Codes, One of the suggestions that had been made to him was that provision should be made in Britain for the acceptance of treble-rate messages. These were accepted in New Zealand for urgent matter, and also in America, but not in Ifritain. The Minister promised that he would look into this matter. Ho promised also that he would look into the questions'-that had. been raised with regard to codes. This latter question had been raised again and again, Jjut lie did not think there was any hope of a relaxation of the conditions until peace was definitely concluded. Tho New Zealand Government.'did not control the censorship; it had to carry out absolutely tho instructions received from the Imperial Government. As to the treble rate in Britain, he was informed that this rate was abolished in England in order that firms with unlimited resources should not have an undue advantage of others by paying the extra rates. Mr. W. A. Andrews, head of the telegraph division of tho Department, made an explanation of the reasons for the present congestion. Ho had a cable map of the world to aid him in his exposition. 1 He was able to show how it was that we could get no help from the Eastern Company, liow the communication between Europe and tho East, by the usual routes, was hampered by the interruption of the lines across Eussia, across Europe, and through the Mediterranean. Communication with India from Britain was showing delay'\of at least twelve days. This meant that all cable messages for Australasia had to corno over the Pacific line, and this line was now carrying more than its estimated maximum capacity. Mr. Andrews said that the only parts of the world in easy ca.ble communication were Europe and America, the Atlantic cables being in working order. Every ot.her part of tho world was suffering in the same way as New Zealand. . ,

Mr. Martin suggested to the Minister that he might again make representations regarding the use. of private codes. The Minister said that the. Government would be prepared to uiake representation in the matter. But he pointed out that there were still many war activities going on—he mentioned the recent trouble ill Afghanistan—and in these conditions the British Government could scarcely be blamed for wishing to exercise close control over cable messages. There might be grave risk of important communication being slipped through in a codcd cable message which would be to the detriment of.tho Empire. Miv A. ,D. Rile.v: We received two messages a fortnight ago in private code. Mr. "Victory thanked the-Minister for having received'the deputation, and for Iho explanation lie had given of the position.

MORE ABOUT THE CAUSES. The Minister, later in the day, gave to a reporter information lie had' revived later as to the. causes of the delay iii the services. This 1 advice was to the effect that there was n delay on Eastern In- ilio C'ocos route of citfht days, ami that this was due to the cutting out of iho original' Malta and Alexandria rout?. The latter cable would require 200 knots of new cable for restoration. I 1 or the next month it. would not be possible to alter the rules regarding full-rate traffic (which is not now accepted at all) for Australia and New Zealand, ihe .advice stated further that one of the principal reasons for interruptions at present was due to normal deterioration of'tlic cables, and' inability of tho companies during the war years to effect repairs owing to submarine risks and the difficulty of "ettino lie"' stock. Mr. Mac Donald said ilmt the British Government and the censor had advised that 011 110 account must the New Zealand Government allow coiled telegrams to be sent until alter pence is declared. This applied to puvale codes. Mr. Mac Donald, «ml hat this decision was nuite definite, anil it was not the decision, of the New Zealand Government'.