82 EXTENSION OF TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION 



Far the greater amount of the existing cable systems is in the hands of private enter- 

 prise. But it is obvious in such a case that national interests and those of the public 

 are liable to run counter to those of the companies concerned. Thus the feeling in 

 favour of the communicating links with the rest of the British Empire being administered 

 by the state has, of late, gained considerable force. There are some, indeed, who would 

 like the entire cable system as at present controlled by British cable companies taken 

 over by the government. That, however, will be clearly inadvisable for high diplomatic 

 reasons. Moreover, it would in all probability be quite impracticable. 



The cable companies almost entirely the outcome of British private enterprise 

 have certainly effected very substantial reductions in the telegraph tariff to different 

 parts of the world. These rebatements appear at their best when a comparison is made 

 with the earliest days, when the desire for communication at such distances was far 

 less, and when the commercial pioneers had a greater right to exact high rates. 



Whilst increased overhead charges and the cost of additional cables constitute a 

 genuine commercial objection to tariff reductions, this difficulty has of late been, to a 

 great extent, met by the invention of the cable relay. This permits of a cheaper type of 

 cable for a given volume of traffic; and, correspondingly, by its adoption at intervening 

 points, the same type of cable has a greater earning capacity. 



It is now over ten years since a proposal was made for a universal 6d., gd., or is., 

 rate throughout the British Empire, the suggestion being that the traffic revenue of the 

 various lines to different parts of the Empire should be " pooled together." Since then, 

 there have been a number of irresponsible proposals of a sort that moves public fancy 

 and sensation about enormous cable rates reduced to even as low a figure as id. a word 

 on a universal footing throughout the world. A reform of this character would involve 

 numerous international difficulties. Moreover, it is more natural that each nation should 

 limit its energies for reform to the reduction of rates within its own sphere of action. 



It was on the first day of 1912 that reduced rates for deferred messages by cable 

 became an accomplished fact. An innovation of this character satisfies, in a great 

 measure, prevailing needs in supplying an alternative service intermediate between the 

 sometimes unnecessarily speedy yet costly cablegram and the despatch of a letter by 

 mail occupying several weeks in transit. The reform is mainly effective for developing 

 private messages, for increasing the bulk of press news between the different parts of 

 the world thereby tending towards greater accuracy and better understanding. It also 

 obviates the necessity of coding and decoding in the case of many business cablegrams 

 of a non-urgent character. For the eventual realisation of deferred " ordinary " rates 

 between the mother country and the greater part of the British empire, English people 

 are largely indebted to the persistence of the British Postmaster-General (Mr. Herbert 

 Samuel). In the case of long distances such as that between the United Kingdom and 

 Australia, this innovation is especially appreciated owing to the length of time occupied 

 by the mail on the one hand, the cost of " cabling " on the other; and the All-British 

 Pacific cable may, therefore, be cited as a good example of the way in which deferred 

 rates turn the line to better account during the more or less idle hours of the night, as 

 well as during non-mutual business hours. On this line alone up to the end of September 

 as many as 228,437 words had been sent at deferred rates during IQI2. 1 When this 

 system of deferred rates comes to be more widely known and understood, it will 

 undoubtedly be even more utilised for social as well as business purposes. With the 

 opening of 1913 a system of cheap week-end cable letters (not less than 30 words) came 

 into operation between the United Kingdom and nearly every other part of the British 

 Empire. The system was inaugurated as far as Canada was concerned by the Western 

 Union Telegraph Company in the early part of 1912, and was some months later adopted 

 by the Eastern Telegraph Company and the Pacific Cable Board between the mother 

 country, South Africa and Australia. The messages can be handed in on any day 



1 The All-British Pacific cable is, as a matter of fact, an excellent example in every way 

 of expansion. Laid in 1902, it only carried about 200,000 words in all during its first year 

 whilst its present volume of traffic exceed* ten times that amount. 



