DISCOVERY 



159 



chairmanship of Sir Henry Norman, M.P., consisted of 

 three independent wireless experts and four Govern- 

 ment officials closely connected with the development 

 of wireless and electrical science generally. This 

 Committee's report, dated June 1920, was approved 

 by the Government and by the Imperial Conference 

 of last year, Australia, however, retaining full freedom 

 of action as to the method in which she would co- 

 operate. 



The Committee's recommendations included : 

 (i) A chain to South Africa consisting of the present 

 stations at Oxford and Cairo, a new station near 

 Nairobi in Kenya Colony, and the ex-German station 

 at W'indhuk, South Africa (to be altered as necessary- 



The Committee's report has given rise to criticism 

 on two points : first, that the State is to erect and work 

 the stations ; secondly, that instead of having direct 

 working between England, India, South Africa, and 

 Australia, the scheme contemplates the use of inter- 

 mediate stations. 



As regards erection and ownership by the State, 

 it has been urged that the chain could be erected more 

 rapidly and worked more efficiently by private enter- 

 prise than by Government, and the success of such an 

 arrangement in the case of our cable communications 

 has often been referred to in this connection. The 

 Committee, however, pointed out that an Imperial 

 wireless system to work efficiently must be protected 



Reproduced from the Report o/ Wireless Telegraphy Commission, 



(2) A chain to Australia consisting of new stations 

 in Englaijd, Egypt, Singapore, and Australia, with a 

 branch to Hong-Kong from Singapore. 



(3) A third station in England to communicate with 

 Canada. 



(4) The stations to be planned by a Wireless Com- 

 mission of about four members, the constructional 

 work being entrusted to the Post Office and the corres- 

 ponding Dominion and Indian Authorities. 



The Committee estimated that the total capital 

 cost of the scheme, excluding the Canadian link and 

 the existing Oxford-Cairo link, would be £1,243,000, 

 of which £853,000 would fall on the Imperial Govern- 

 ment. 



from interference from other sources owing to the very 

 limited number of "wave-lengths" available for long- 

 distance working, and of these "wave-lengths," in 

 any international agreement, only a proportion could 

 be claimed for the British Empire. In other words, 

 the Committee claimed that owing to the mutual inter- 

 ference which is so easily caused by the signalling 

 of high-power wireless stations, any Imperial scheme 

 must be, for all practical purposes, a monopoly, and 

 though there might be objections to a Government 

 monopoly, there were greater objections to a private 

 monopoly. In the case of cables this monopoly ques- 

 tion does not, of course, arise, as there is no mutual 

 interference, and, therefore, no limit technically to the 



