A TELEPHONE-LESS CITY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3153, 2 April 1909, Page 4

A TELEPHONE-LESS CITY.

Constantinople presents a fine field for the concession-hunter just now. Mr William Hammond, a consulting electrical engineer of note, returned from there to London recently, full of the possibilities of the Turkish capital as a field for -British enterr prise. Electrical undertakings are almost unknown in Turkey. The Sultan has set his face strongly against electricity in Constantinople under the impression that dynamo is only another word for dynamite. The great obstacle to the financial success of electric lighting in Turkey is the fact that the Turk goes to bed at sunset. Then there are telephones and electric trams to be provided for the people of Constantinople as soon as they want them. There is not a telephone in the whole city, and one can waste three hours on a fruitless journey from one part to another, for want of this convenience. Electric traction, it is claimed, would be a splendid thing for the city, over whose hills the present antiquated horse traction makes slow progress. And if concessions are to be had in the present enlightened regime, English firms have a better chance of getting them than those of any other nation. German diplomacy may be triumphant in settling the Balkan question, but with the officials at Constantinople England stands a gooj deal higher than her rival across the North Sea.