A TELEGRAPHIC MYSTERY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 8, Issue 26, 29 March 1907, Page 2

A TELEGRAPHIC MYSTERY.

What is known as the “secret mail ” of India has for more Ilian a generation perplexed the British mind, and is still a profound mystery, although numberless attempts have been made to explain it. Everyone who has lived long in Asiatic countries is aware that accurate knowledge of important happenings at a distance is often possessed by the natives a considerable time before it is obtained by the Government, even though special facilities have been provided for the transmission of the news.

This is frequently and conspicuuously illustrated throughout the Sepoy rebellion. Happenings occurring hundreds of miles away were usually known in the bazaars hours, and sometimes days, before the news reached the authorities, and the information obtained was regarded as so trustworthy that the natives speculated upon it, even to the full extent of their fortunes. Indeed, upon one occasion the “secret mail’’ beat the Government courier by fully twelve hours, although every endeavour had been made to secure the swiftest despatch. The Hindoos themselves say, when they consent to talk about it at all, that they depend neither upon men nor horses, and have no secret code of signals ; but that they possess a system of thought transmission which is as familiar to them as is the electric telegraph to the Western world. Anyone may accept this explanation that will. But though most people, with less fondness for tho mysterious, and a better knowledge of the weakness of the Hindoos for making riddles of the simplest facts, will look for a more prosaic explanation, it remains to be said that none will bo forthcoming. The “secret mail ’’' in an indubitable reality, and no European has ever succeeded in solving its mystery.

•If news is transmitted by signals, no one has over seen the signallers; nor if there is a vast system of stages in operation, covering hundreds and thousands of miles, has anyone ever come across any of its machinery? And. indeed, it would seem that some means of communication must be at the command of the natives more rapid than horses or runners.