TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA.

Southland Times, Issue 949, 11 May 1868, Page 2

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH INDIA.

\ The " Times "of Feb. 26 says :— There is now good reason to believe that before the summer of 1869 a continuous connected line of telegraphs will be established between England and our Indian possessions. The route will be as follows :— lt will commence- at Nordeney, an island in the German Ocean, on the i Prussian Coast, and will thence proceed through Hamburg and Berlin to Thorn, on the Prusso- Russian frontier, through , Russia via "Warsaw, Odessa, Kertch, and Poti to Tiflis, and thence through Persia ■ to Teheran. At Teheran the proposed ' line will join the system now in connexion with the Persian Gulf Cable. The company by which the scheme is being carried but has obtained from the Prussian Government the concession of landing its own cable on the North G-erman coast; Provisional arrangements are, we understand, being made meanwhile with the Electric and International Telegraph Company and Reuter's Companies, securing ta the promoters of the new pro- ' ject the uae of .two wires between London "•■ and the Prussian coast. By the Prusi sian concession the Government of that country undertakes to complete a special double line connecting Nordeney and the Russian frontier at Thorn, and to reserve it for the exclusive use of the company in good working condition on payment of a message royalty. By a concession from the Russian Government the company are -authorised to construct a double line from the frontier at Thorn to the Persian frontier at Tiflis with stations at Warsaw, Odessa, Kertch, and Poti ; and by a Persian concession the right of constructing a similar line from the Russian frontier to Teheran is conceded, tt will then be brought in connexion with the Indian system. The proposed amount of capital is £450,000, and the cost of a message to India will be about £3 10s. The advantage of the proposed line may be thus briefly sum- '

marised : — The expenditure will be moderate, the security of' the line will be : secured by convention, and, above all, the ' working of it will be in the hands "of the : company. At present from the time a message leaves England it is entirely freed from our control until ifc reaches the Persian G-ulf. During that timeit passes through places^^gserned by various Administrationsj^navit^ is transmitted through the h^nHs of-' blerks speaking different languages/ .' ; f3?Ke\ new scheme promises to obviate tEe .difficulties which have hith'ertb' e^asfed in^'the way of a message passing intact and intelligible from England to" the-^East or from the East to England. If it fulfils what it promises, an invaluable addition will be made to our agencies of telegraphic communication. -