RADIO TELEPHONE

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1932, Page 7

RADIO TELEPHONE

LACK OF SECRECY ALLEGED. LONDON?, September 28. A scheme to defraud the Australian Customs was among the private conversations heard on the Anglo-Austral-ian telephone. The “Daily Mail” declares that it lacks secrecy, in common with other British wireless telephony, resulting in intimate Government, diplomatic, commercial, and private discussions being known in a very wide circle possessing wireless sets which are capable of intercepting the conversations. It is now disclosed that the Ottawa delegates’ conversations were overheard .and used for profit. ‘ These were also intercepted by the Empire’s enemies, and used advantageously or distorted for purposes of propaganda. Conversations of eminent Britons abroad with friends at home, in which women of high repute were concerned, have become the property of s eavesdroppers. The “Daily-Mail” adds that its informant avers that he can listen whenever he likes, with the greatest ease, to people in New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, South America, and Dutch Indies, indeed, everywhere the wireless telephone is used. ' The New York-London circuit is difficult to tap, owing to a secret device, which, nevertheless,, is apparently unavailing in certain atmospheric conditions. The irony c/' the situations is that the informant has been interested in wireless for only three years, and built a four-valve set with .second-hand nnrts. bought in the junk stall of Petticoat lane. He' listens to conversations on a wave-length of 14-7 metres, on a set which cost £o.