The Influence of Submarine Cables 



will be an accomplishment of the near 

 future. 



With this extension of imperial cable 

 added to her already extensive state- 

 owned land-line system, England will 

 have the most complete telegraphic sys- 

 tem in existence, placing the following 

 fortified and garrisoned coaling stations 

 in direct connection each with any other, 

 viz. : Hong Kong,' Singapore, Trincoma- 

 lee, Colombo, Aden, Cape Town, Simons 

 Bay, St. Helena, Ascension, Saint Lucia, 

 Jamaica, Bermuda, Halifax, Esquimalt, 

 King George's Sound, and Thursday 

 Island. The following " defended ports" 

 Avould likewise be connected, viz. : Dur- 

 ban, Karachi, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, 

 Rangoon, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, 

 Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Towns- 

 ville, Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, 

 and Dunedin. 



With the completion of the cable across 

 the Pacific the last telegraphic gap will 

 be completed around the earth. Great 

 Britain will then have the great advan- 

 tage of duplicate routes, since from any 

 point there will be two routes — one east 

 and one west — to any other station. 



PROPOSED COLONIAL TELEGRAPH 

 SYSTEM FOR THE UNITED STATES 



Since the events of the Spanish- 

 American War the supreme impor- 

 tance of exclusively controlled com- 

 munications, as a means of military and 

 naval warfare, has been recognized as 

 never before. All the principal nations 

 are studying this subject in its various 

 aspects, and already a distinct cable pol- 

 icy is entering into the politics of the 

 principal countries possessing colonies 

 and seeking for commercial, military, 

 and naval supremacy. 



In this connection it may be of interest 

 to note briefly what has been the tele- 

 graph policy of the United States in 

 dealing with the territory of our new 

 possessions. In Cuba and Porto Rico, 

 and in the Philippine Archipelago, every 

 effort has been made by the Signal Corps 



of the Army to cover the islands with a 

 network of wires, so complete and re- 

 liable that intercommunication is insured 

 at all times. In the pacification of Cuba 

 and Porto Rico, in the suppression of 

 the Philippine uprising, it is believed that 

 there has been no more potent agent 

 than the military telegraph. 



For years Spain had been trying to 

 pacify the Island of Cuba, and yet her 

 telegraph system was incomplete, obso- 

 lete, and unreliable in the extreme. It 

 was possible for bands of insurgents to 

 move about much at their pleasure, ap- 

 pearing here and there, with no means 

 of locating or concentrating for their 

 destruction. It was not that the number 

 of troops was not sufficient, so much as 

 that there were no efficient means of 

 directing the troops in such a way as to 

 make results decisive. 



TELEGRAPH SYSTEM IN CUBA AND 

 PORTO RICO. 



Since the evacuation of Cuba by Span- 

 ish troops the land telegraph system has 

 been entirely reconstructed by the United 

 States Signal Corps, and now aggregates 

 about 2,500 miles, including a central 

 trunk line the entire length of the island, 

 which is duplicated from Havana to 

 Sancti Spiritus. In addition to this 

 trunk line there are thirteen lines across 

 the island, which divide it up into com- 

 paratively small sections. Every mile of 

 these lines has been reconstructed, under 

 great difficulties, yet their reliability is 

 evidenced by the fact that the entire 

 Porto Rican Government business, which 

 is now transmitted over the new land 

 lines from Havana to Santiago, was con- 

 ducted during the month of June, 1900, 

 without a single interruption. 



In the Island of Porto Rico every im- 

 portant commercial or military point is 

 in telegraph connection by a system of 

 lines, which have also been entirely re- 

 constructed and the routes improved 

 since the disastrous hurricane of August, 

 1899. 



