48 On the Electric Telegraph between England and India. 



very hurriedly put in temporary working order for military pur- 

 poses. The lines connecting Kurrachee with the rest of India 

 were not adequate for the European business brought to them 

 when through communication was established ; and perhaps the 

 greatest defect in the entire system was the employment of un- 

 derpaid and uneducated natives as signallers at the several 

 stations where the messages had to be repeated, which rendered 

 them almost useless from the unintelligible and mutilated form 

 in which they were delivered. 



It soon became obvious that this unsatisfactory state of affairs 

 could not be allowed very much longer to exist, so in 1866 a 

 select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to 

 take evidence, with a view to the improvement of East India 

 communications, from which report I have received considerable 

 assistance in the preparation of this paper. The evidence taken 

 before the committee, shewing, as it did, the necessity for im- 

 proved telegraphic communication with India, which would be as 

 much as possible under one administration, two proposals 

 soon presented themselves to the public, one chiefly a sub- 

 marine company, to work through Italy and Sicily, under a 

 concession already granted by the Italian Government, thence to 

 the African coast, joining the Malta and Alexandria cable at 

 Benghazi, from whence a duplicate cable has been already laid to 

 Alexandria, and by land line to Suez. An additional wire to be 

 placed on the Viceroy of Egypt's line, from Cairo to Suakin, or 

 Massawah, when a new cable will be laid to Aden, Macullah, 

 Kooria, Mooria islands, calhng at Muscat and Kurrachee, and on 

 to Bombay, or as an alternative route by the Syrian line, via 

 Jerusalem, Damascus, to Diarbekir, where it will join the present 

 Asiatic Turkish system alread) referred to. By the last mail I 

 was informed that the prospectus of this company has been with- 

 drawn for the present. 



The other proposal is that of Messrs. Siemens, Brothers, the 

 well-known telegraphic material manufacturers and contractors, 

 of London and Berlin. The Kussian aud Persian Governments 

 have allowed the firm or company to construct a line through 

 their separate territories ; and the Prussian Government have 

 constructed a two-wire line from Norderney to Thorn, on the 

 Russian boundary, leaving Siemens' company to provide the 

 instruments and electricians. This will establish a line, exclu- 

 sively under one management, worked by English operators, from 

 London to Teheran, in Persia, passing through Tborn, Warsaw, 

 Odessa, Kertch, Poti, Tiflis, and Teheran; then through the 

 Persian line to Bushire. 



The cable between Kertch and Poti will contain three wires, 

 one of which will be set apart exclusive^ for Eupsian messages. 

 This work is now drawing towards completion. On this line a 



