THE RADIO TELEPHONE AS AN EMPIRE LINK.

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 43, 9 May 1930, Page 4

THE RADIO TELEPHONE AS AN EMPIRE LINK.

THE day is at hand when New Zealand will be able to engage in direct telephonic conversation with Britain. The service commercialising that function which has just been opened between Australia and Great Britain is a long.step towards the extension of the same facilities to the Dominion. Immediately following upon the brilliant inauguration of the British-Australian service by the initial conversaton between the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, with Mr. J. R. Scullin, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Sir Joseph Ward, announced that arrangements were already in hand for the inception of radio telephonic service between the Commonwealth and the Dominion. "Most of the material," states Sir Joseph, "is already on hand, and the balance is expected within the next two months. It is hoped," he adds, "that this telephone service will be of great assistance to business men in New Zealand. It is hoped that at a later date those who wish can be switched through at Sydney to the new telephone service inaugurated there the other day." THE dramatic nature of the setvice instituted between Australia and Great Britain focused public attention in both countries upon the event. The conversation between the heads of both States was broadcast both throughout Great Britain and throughout the Commonwealth, ‘thus enabling the peoples of both countries to participate in the thrill of so outstanding an occasion. This consummation is the outcome of technical experiments which have been conducted by the two parties interested-Amalgamated Wireless of Australia, Limited, and the British postal authorities-for some years past. Technical efficiency sufficient to warrant the institution of the service was attained some twelve months or more ago, but time was required to complete the negotiations and finalise the arrangements for the administration of the service. "THE inception of the service between Australia and New Zealand will be of momentous import. It will directly facilitate and enlarge the trading interests and transactions of both countries. ‘That develop- ° ASOT 5 SE SRR: TNS nn en ner

"ment, however, is the least important of its potentialities. Our trade, ; association with the Mother Country is far closer than with and we will not. receive the full benefit from this. modern miracle’ until it is possible-to speak through Australia direct to Great Britain. With the spanning of the immense distance between the Commonwealth and the Home Céuntry, it becomes a commercial certainty that at need those at the heart of the Empire can communicate direct with any part of the globe, . THE vision of the past thus becomes a commonplace of the present. What will the effects be? The miracles of science have followed so closely of late years that humanity accepts each further manifestation | almost with a blase disregard of its importance. That, however, hardly ‘applies to this latest development. The possibilities are so immense as to immediately excite the imagination. To be abl¢ to converse with interests 10,000 miles away; to receive an response and suggestion or counter-thought to ideas issued; to nie another point of view on an issue of moment; these things cannot but stimulate closer contact, fuller mutual understanding, and a_ fuller sense of co-operation and unity. The radio telephone, interlinking different parts of the Empire, will go a long way toward killing that sense of distance now prevalent. It will promote the idea of unity. It will lead to a closer association of business interests, commercial and political, and a more intensg development of trading activities. It will thus come as a definite stimulus to the economic unity of the Empire, toward which goal there is evidence from all parts of the British Commonwealth that public thought is trending. The thought everywhere is toward closer relationships and more intense mutual trading activities. That trend will be stimulated by the service made available by radio. THIS development can perhaps rightly be described as the biggest thing that has ever happened to New Zealand. It puts us in touch with the world in a way never hitherto possible. Australia ..- now has a communication service, not ofly to Great Britain, but als to Canada, and it is hoped that in a little while she will also have a direct telephonic service to the United States and Europe. By the link to be established between the Dominion and Australia, the advantage of communication with the outside world will be secured. Thus the radio age, spreads, and radio places in the hands of humanity an instrument, the full effect of which upon the future development of the race cannot as yet be assessed. .