50 THE ADDRESSES, LECTURES, ETC., OP" 



communication by sea and by land will be completed between 

 Europe and India. 



^Requesting the favour of a short space for these explanatory 

 remarks, 



I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 



C. W. SIEMENS. 



3, GREAT GEORGE STR-.ET, WESTMINSTER, S.W., Dec. 4. 



To THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES" (Tuesday, December 8th, 1808). 



SIE, The letters in The Times of this day from Sir James 

 Anderson and Mr. Alfred Seymour, in answer to my letter of the 

 4th instant, on the subject of telegraphs to India, oblige me to 

 again intrude myself upon your space. 



Sir James Anderson wishes for a fair investigation of the merits 

 of the case, and I agree with him thoroughly in this respect ; but 

 his intimate connexion with submarine enterprise leads him in 

 spite of himself to see only the possible disadvantages of land lines 

 and the possible advantages connected with the laying of sub- 

 marine lines. His remarks imply that the government in com- 

 pleting the extension of the Indian Telegraph system to the 

 Persian Gulf and Teheran bestows special advantages upon the 

 Indo-European Telegraph Company, which is, however, not the 

 case, inasmuch as these lines are equally necessary for the three 

 routes via Teheran and Eussia, via Constantinople, and via 

 Alexandria, through the Anglo-Mediterranean Telegraph, with 

 which Sir James Anderson himself is so prominently connected. 

 His estimate of the British expenditure upon these lines is, I 

 believe, greatly exaggerated, and, so far from their being a dead 

 charge upon the government, I gather from official statements 

 that they are a source of considerable annual gain, notwithstand- 

 ing the wretched condition of the lines now existing between the 

 Persian Gulf and this country. The British Government is 

 surely bound either to maintain their lines in good working 

 condition, or to hand them over to others who may be willing to 

 do so. 



I have to thank Sir James Anderson for his good opinion of my 



