57

A,—2

Enclosure. Sir,— Treasury Chambers, 18th November, 1910. The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury have had before them your letter of the 28th September last (10/2002/713), in which you state that the Pacific Cable Board has received from all the contributing Governments communications expressing their approval of the proposal that the Board should extend its system by laying a cable between Australia and New Zealand, and request their Lordships to take steps for obtaining the sanction of Parliament to the proposal, including power to raise by loan the whole or any part of the funds required. Since that letter was received the Secretary of State for the Colonies has drawn their Lordships' attention to the report of a Radiotelegraphic Conference held at Melbourne in December last, containing proposals to erect wireless stations for the purpose of establishing communication between Australia and New Zealand, and Fiji and other places in the Pacific, and has informed them that the Australian Government have already accepted tenders for the erection of high-power stations at Sydney and Fremantle, the former to be capable of communicating with Doubtless Bay in New Zealand, and that the New Zealand Government has called for tenders for the establishment of a high-power station at Doubtless Bay to be capable of communicating with the station at Sydney. It is stated in an appendix (C) to the report of the Conference that if satisfactory wireless communication is established between Australia and New Zealand (and New Zealand and Fiji) it is possible for the system to compete with the existing cables for ordinary telegraph business between these places, but that " it is understood that the installations of Sydney and Doubtless Bay will only be used for communicating with ships and for defence purposes." Their Lordships are not apparently interested in the possible competition of such a wireless system, controlled by the Governments of Australia and New Zealand respectively, with the existing cables between those dominions — i.e., with the cables of the Eastern Extension Company ; but they are very directly interested in its possible competition with the new cable which your Board desires to lay. The Renewal Fund, out of which it is proposed (at any rate, in the first instance) to provide the cost of the new cable, estimated at some £155,000, has practically been built up out of contributions from the Imperial Government and the Governments of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand ; and the two former Governments are directly concerned, in common with the two latter (who are installing the wireless system), in the possible effect of wireless competition on the future revenues of the Board, which it was hoped would be increased by the new cable's agency. My Lords are therefore endeavouring to ascertain, through the Colonial Office, the intentions of the Governments of Australia and New Zealand as to the limitations, if any, which are to be imposed upon the use of the wireless system, and further particulars as to the possible effect of such a system on the Board's intercolonial traffic. Until this information is received my Lords do not feel able to come to any definite conclusion on the Subject. I have, &c, The Chairman, Pacific Cable Board, Queen Anne's Chambers, S.W. G. H. Murray.

No. 100. New Zealand, No. 276. My Lord, — Downing Street, 25th November, 1910. I have the honour to request you to inform your Ministers that the Turkish Government is anxious to make an arrangement with His Majesty's Government to enable their consular officers in His Majesty's dominions to take over and administer the estates of Ottoman subjects dying therein. 2. As this privilege is already enjoyed in the Turkish dominions by British consular officers, it is proposed by His Majesty's Government to comply with the request of the 'Turkish Government for reciprocity of treatment, and I enclose a draft Order in Council which has accordingly been prepared under the Domicile Act, 1861, to give effect to the proposal in question. 3. I have to inquire whether your Ministers see any objection to the issue of this Order in Council, which it will be seen applies to the whole of His Majesty's dominions. 4. I shall be glad to receive a reply to this despatch at the early convenience of your Ministers. I have, &c, L. HARCOURT. Governor the Right Hon. Lord Islington, D.5.0., &c. B—A. 2.

A.-l, 1911 No. 72.