.sVA' \VII.UAM SIEMENS, F.R.S. 49 



TELEGRAPH TO INDIA. 



To THE EDITOR OF " THE TIMES " (Saturday, December 5th, 



1868). 



SIR, In The Times of to-day I observe a letter from Sir James 

 Anderson, in which he makes the most of the imperfections of land 

 line telegraphs, and inveighs against the support given to them by 

 the Government. No doubt he would be better pleased if the 

 Government were to embark in a gigantic enterprise for the esta- 

 blishment of submarine cables over the coral bottom of the Red 

 Sea and the Indian Ocean. 



I agree with Sir James Anderson respecting the bad condition 

 of land lines as they exist in many civilised countries, where they 

 have been erected on the " cheap and nasty " principle, and con- 

 sist of little more than sticks of wood and of pieces of pottery ware 

 (dignified by the name of insulators) carrying flimsy wire ; but I 

 maintain that a land line properly constructed and worked is most 

 reliable, even when carried through countries like Persia. 



When Sir James Anderson speaks with disparagement of the 

 different routes for messages to India which are now supposed to 

 exist, according to the list of tariffs published by Colonel Gold- 

 smid, I fully agree with him in regarding them as imperfect and 

 unsatisfactory ; but he omits to mention the substantial through- 

 line which is now in course of construction by the Indo-European 

 Telegraph Company, and which will be opened for traffic in less 

 than a twelvemonth, under the guarantee of international con- 

 ventions, and will, I am confident, give every satisfaction to the 

 public. 



Sir James Anderson also complains that the Government are 

 about to squander public money in erecting a third wire between 

 Teheran and Bushire, but he does not seem to be aware of the 

 fact that this third wire will be paid for by the Indo-European 

 Company at the termination of the Anglo-Persian telegraph 

 treaty, and that the company in question is prepared to extend 

 their lines hereafter from Shiraz to Bunder Abbass, whereby, with 

 the line now being constructed along the Mekran coast, a double 



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