TO WREST CONTROL FROM GOVERNMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 277, 13 February 1928, Page 9

TO WREST CONTROL FROM GOVERNMENT

WIRELESS AND CABLES POSTAL WORKERS’ FEARS By Cable. —Press Association. — Copyright. LONDON, Saturday. The Labour member of "the House of Commons for Bristol East, Mr. Waiter Baker, who is head of the Research Department of the Post Office Workers’ Union, will, on February 21, ask the Postmaster-General, Sir William Mitchell Thompson, to disclose for the first time actual terms of the licence under which the Marconi Company operates. In the course of an interview given to the “Daily Herald, the Labour paper, Mr. Baker said: '“I understand the cable companies and the private wireless interests alike are striving to wrest the operation of the Empire wireless services from the Government. Their immediate goal is the fusion of all the interests of cable and wireless companies in Empire telegraphic communication. This is obviously contrary to the public interest, which would be best served by a continuance of direct Government control of the beam system, the Empire cables and kindred services. 1

“It is essential that the natural advantages of wireless should be passed on completely, in the shape of lower rates. The interest of the cable companies must not prevent this, nor impede the fuller development of wireless.”

Mr. Baker, who was' formerly employed in the telegraph service, said his experience of the Post Office Workers Union confirmed this point of view, which represented the union’s policy.The “Observer” in a long article emphasises the necessity for a wireless conference dealing with the position that has arisen owing to American activities in the last two years, whereby that Government dominates international communications. “The British Government is indifferent toward America’s effort,” says the paper.—A. and N.Z.-Sun.