The Influence of Submarine Cables 



THE IMPERIAL CABLE SYSTEM OF 

 GREAT BRITAIN. 



As soon as the possibility of communi- 

 cating at long distance, by means of sub- 

 marine cables, was practically demon- 

 strated, England saw what commercial 

 and political preponderance the creation 

 of a great network of cables, resting 

 under her control, would give her. With- 

 out letting herself be discouraged by 

 heavy losses in the beginning, with a 

 perseverance worthy of admiration, she 

 has succeeded in creating and developing, 

 methodically and without delay, a net- 

 work of submarine telegraphic cables, 

 which to-day encircles a large part of the 

 entire world. 



The English cables, up to the present, 

 have been laid principally by private 

 companies, but Article 7 of the condi- 

 tions which govern them provides that 

 all official despatches shall have prece- 

 dence over others; Article 3, that the 

 'companies can have no foreigners among 

 their employees, nor can the wires pass 

 into a foreign office, nor under the con- 

 trol of a foreign government ; and Arti- 

 cle 9, that in case of war the government 

 can occupy the different stations and 

 place its own employees therein. 



During the past two years, however, 

 there has been a great national protest 

 in England and the colonies against the 

 exorbitant rates imposed by the monopoly 

 of the private cable corporations, until 

 the principle of absolute state ownership 

 has come to be a controlling one in 

 England's future cable policy. 



England's sea-power is not alone 

 measured by the number, character, and 

 tonnage of her war-ships. It is im- 

 mensely increased by the system of ex- 

 clusively controlled submarine cable net- 

 work, which at present forms four-fifths 

 of all the cables in the world, woven like 

 a spider's web to include all her prin- 

 cipal colonies, fortified ports, and coaling 

 stations. 



Submarine cable communication is 



scarcely fifty years old, yet the British 

 Empire is already bound together in one 

 vast intelligence, transmission system, 

 with London as its centre. Nothing im- 

 portant can happen in, any quarter of the 

 globe which does not find its way to this 

 great world's news exchange — London. 

 And this system is and has been a prin- 

 cipal element of her strength and has 

 largely made possible a government in- 

 cluding subjects naturally widely differ- 

 ing in character, habits, and modes of 

 thought. 



This great cable system is the more 

 important since no other country has such 

 a system, and this fact has placed in the 

 hands of the British Empire a powerful 

 means of real dominion over the rest of 

 the world. Nor is England satisfied with 

 her present extensive telegraph system of 

 world control; she has in projection for 

 the very near future an extension of this 

 system, which will be nothing less than 

 a British imperial telegraph system en- 

 circling the entire globe. 



It was early discovered by every coun- 

 try in Europe that so efficient and valu- 

 able a servant to trade and commerce, 

 so important an aid to the state itself as 

 the telegraph, should become a national 

 institution. Great Britain, France, Aus- 

 tria, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, Italy, 

 Spain, Portugal, and Belgium, each 

 established a state telegraph system. 

 Thirty years ago the English telegraph 

 lines were transferred to the state, and 

 experience has shown that this has been 

 done with advantage to the state itself 

 and to the benefit of the public. At the 

 present moment the British Empire is ad- 

 vancing rapidly to the accomplishment of 

 a state controlled cable system. Imperial 

 penny-postage having been recently real- 

 ized throughout the British Empire, the 

 next great step in imperial development 

 along this line is to connect the state- 

 owned land telegraph systems of the 

 Empire by a state-owned and controlled 

 system of submarine cables. 



An essential and necessary condition 



