A.—2

the lack of a station in this country sufficiently powerful for the conduct of such a service has left a clear field for the distribution of news and commercial intelligence from French, German, and American high - power stations. His Majesty's Government trust that the establishment of the Rugby station will remove the ground for complaint in this respect. 3. In particular, the opening of the Rugby station will afford an opportunity of extending to world-wide range a service which has for some time past been conducted from the Post Office station at Northolt, for the distribution to European countries of messages containing commercial information, exchange quotations, and cotton, metal, and other market prices. These messages are despatched by certain agencies, including Reuters, and, with the exception of a few news messages in clear language, they are transmitted in a special code, copies of which are deposited with the Post Office. The companies concerned derive their revenue from the subscriptions paid by the recipients. In some cases the messages are picked up by the companies' agents themselves ; in others they are received by public wireless-telegraph stations and transferred to the companies' agents, by whom they are either decoded and distributed by telephone or telegraph, or, alternatively, retransmitted by wireless to subscribers. The subscribers are provided with copies of the special code, which is changed periodically. 4. I am informed that this service has been attended with a considerable measure of success, and that representations have been received in favour of the provision of a similar service from Rugby. It is obviously of advantage that British prices and commercial information should be distributed throughout the world from Rugby, rather than that foreign prices and information should be received from high-power stations in other countries which are developing services of the kind. His Majesty's Government have decided, therefore, to provide facilities for such a service at Rugby for any responsible agency which desires them and is prepared to observe the conditions prescribed. These conditions will be in accordance with Article LXVII ter. of the International Telegraph Regulations adopted at the recent Conference of the Telegraph Union at Paris, the main provisions of which may be summarized as follows : — (a) The service will be limited to messages, in code or in clear language, containing news or information of a political, commercial, or public character, and will not be used for private or personal telegrams. (b) The service will be open to any responsible agency which complies with the conditions prescribed by the Administrations concerned. (c) The sending Administration will obtain from the senders and communicate to each receiving Administration the addresses of the proposed recipients in its territory. (d) The receiving Administration will be free to decide whether or not the addressees proposed by the sender shall receive the messages, and, if so, under what conditions. (e) Each receiving Administration will take appropriate measures to ensure as far as possible that only stations authorized to receive the service make use of the messages. (/) The sending and receiving Administrations will respectively fix and collect from the senders or receivers their own fees for transmission or reception, as the case may be. ((/) The receipts will not be included in the international accounts. (h) The agencies participating may be required to deposit with the Administrations concerned copies of any codes used. 5. It will, of course, rest with the Government of every country to determine whether the reception of the proposed messages from Rugby should be permitted within its territory, and, if so, on what conditions : that is to say, whether the messages should be received at Government or other public wireless-telegraph stations, or whether licenses should be issued for their private reception, and in either case what charges should be paid by the agency for the service. It will be necessary for any agency which proposes to despatch such messages from Rugby to make its own arrangements with the Administrations of the countries in which the messages are to be received.

5