380 Telephone Systems of the Continent of Etirope 



3. International trunk communication. The Swiss wires 

 have already broken bounds in several directions by connecting 

 with France, Baden, Wiirtemberg, Bavaria, and Austria. These 

 international lines are not, however, with perhaps the exception of 

 the French, of much importance as yet, communication on the 

 German side being restricted to the Swiss towns St. Gallen, 

 Romanshorn, and one or two others nearest the frontier. Conse- 

 quently, when subscribers at Berne, Zurich, and of other exchanges 

 west of St. Gallen wish to communicate beyond the frontier they 

 must find somebody in one of the border towns to act as inter- 

 mediary. These restrictions are understood to be due to objections 

 raised by the Imperial Political Bureau at Berlin. Communication 

 was also established via Basle with Alsace-Lorraine, but after a time 

 had to be discontinued by orders from Berlin. The junction with 

 the French lines is at Besanc.on ; with the Baden, at Constance ; 

 with the Austrian, at Bregenz ; and there is communication via 

 Bregenz with Lindau in Bavaria, and Friedrichshafen in Wiirtem- 

 berg. 



4. Telephoning of telegrams. Subscribers are afforded every 

 facility for forwarding and receiving their telegrams by telephone, 

 as the State regards the telephone system as the natural feeder of 

 the telegraphs, in the same manner as light railways are collectors 

 for the heavier main lines, and accordingly cultivates an intimate 

 connection between the two. All the exchanges have a connection 

 with the nearest telegraph office, which is given to a subscriber 

 who wishes to forward a telegram, and used by the telegraph 

 office for obtaining communication with a subscriber for whom a 

 telegram has arrived. The Swiss, however, are not so liberal in 

 this particular matter as the Belgians and Bavarians, since the 

 subscriber has to pay '96^. for each telegram, in or out, trans- 

 mitted by telephone. Copies of the telegrams telephoned to 

 subscribers are afterwards delivered by messenger. This is not 

 such a shrewd arrangement as that existing in Belgium, where 

 copies are posted instead of delivered (unless the subscriber 

 specially wishes otherwise). The Swiss plan saves nothing in 

 messengers, and wins very little popularity, since in the vast 

 majority of cases the receivers are quite content with the version 

 telephoned. Telegrams for telephoning must be in the German 



