TRANSACTIONS OP SECTION E. 807 



past by such Napoleonic organisers as the late Sir John Pender. It is to him and 

 to such men as he that we owe those splendid beginnings which by means of vital 

 reflexes from the nerve-centre of the Empire have helped to fire our white fellow- 

 subjects all over the globe with a loftier patriotism and with new, brave, and 

 broader ideals of nationality. 



It was coincident with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 that the liveliest 

 interest began to be taken in sea-cables, and a master mind perceived their com- 

 mercial possibilities. Before that time the success of the constructing companies 

 bad not been great. Sir John Pender then founded the famous Eastern Telegraph 

 Company by the amalgamation of four existing lines, which had together laid 

 down 8,500 miles of sea-cables, besides erecting land-lines also. A year later, in 

 1873, from three other companies he formed the Eastern Extension Australasia 

 and China Telegraph Company, which jointly possessed 5,200 miles of submarine 

 lines. From that date the extension of electric communication to all parts of the 

 earth, over wild as well as over civilised countries, and beneath the salt water, has 

 only been equalled by their average remunerativeness. Now there are 175,000 

 miles of submerged cables alone, of which this country owns no less than 

 113,000 miles. The history of some of these cables is full of interest, and might 

 attract the delighted attention of the lover of picturesque romance no less than of 

 the student of commercial geography. It also supplies suggestions and many 

 facts, both to the physical geographer and to the student of seismic phenomena. 

 Science has taught the companies to economise time, labour, and material in cable- 

 laying operations, as well as how to improve the working instruments. Human 

 ingenuity, business perception, and organising power have shown once more their 

 startling possibilities when directed and controlled by cool, clear-eyed intelligence 

 combined with general mental capacity. 



It is only necessary to reaffirm, for the reasons already given, the national, the 

 imperial, the commonwealth i-equirement for cheap telegraphy, and the profound 

 necessity there is both strategically and politically for complete government con- 

 trol by purchase, guarantee, or other equitable means over main cables which 

 connect Great Britain with her daughter states, her Indian empire, and her depen- 

 dencies. Our communications with our own folk must be independent of private 

 companies and completely independent of all foreign nations. 



All the details which I have given are illustrative of man's successful energy 

 and of his progressive ingenuity in enslaving the great forces of the earth to 

 diminish distance, to shorten world-journeys, and to speed world-messages. 

 Another human achievement, the piercing by Lesseps of the Suez isthmus, has 

 bad remarkable consequences. It had been talked of in England centuries ago. 

 Christopher Marlowe makes Tamerlane brag : — 



• Anil here, not far from Alexandria, 

 Whereas the Tyrrhene and the Red Sea meet. 

 Being distant less than full a hundred leagues, 

 I meant to cut a channel to them both 

 That men might quickly sail to India.' 



The illustrious French engineer solved one great problem in 1869, only to 

 originate others which are of profound importance to commercial geography — and 

 to the British Empire most of all. The Suez Canal has brought India and the 

 Australasian Commonwealth wonderfully near to our shores. It has greatly 

 diminished many time-distances, but why has it not injured our Eastern trade ? 

 Also is there any danger or menace of danger to that trade ? From the very 

 beginnings of the great commerce, the Eastern trade has enriched every nation 

 which obtained its chief share. It has been the seed of the bitterest animosities, 

 It alienated Dutch and English, blood relations, co-religionists, co-reformers, into 

 implacable resentment, and bitter has the retribution been. On the other hand it 

 brought into temporary alliance such strange bedfellows as the Turks of the six- 

 teenth century and the Venetians. At the present day what intornationil jealousies 

 and heartburnings has the same rivalry not fostered ! For all the trading peoples 

 know how vital is that traffic. 



In the earliest days of commercial venturings the Eastern trade focuased at 



