Vol. VIII. No. 91. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[July, 1902.] 185 
PROCEEDINGS OF INSTITUTIONS. 
THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 
IMPERIAL CABLE COMMUNICATIONS. 
The following is the substance of a communication which has been 
issued by the Secretary of the London Chamber of Commerce, to the 
various Chambers and Public Institutions which took part in the work of the 
Congress : — - 
At the fourth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, held in London in 
June, 1900, the following resolution on Imperial Telegraphic Communications was carried 
unanimously 
“ That this Congress desires to call special attention to the necessity of com- 
pleting the All-British Pacific Cable, not only on commercial grounds, but in the 
interests of the Imperial security. 
“ That this Congress recommends that support should be given to the action 
which the Imperial Telegraph Committee of the House of Commons is taking with 
the view of placing the important matter of electrical communication between the 
United Kingdom, India, and the British Colonies and Dependencies on a footing 
commensurate with the present conditions of Inter-Imperial and Colonial relations. 
“ That copies of this resolution be addressed to the Prime Minister, the First Lord 
of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for India, 
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Postmaster-General, and the Governors of 
the self-governing Colonies, urging that every reasonable opportunity may be given in 
Parliament for discussion of the position of the Telegraph Companies in relation to 
the Government, with a view to an immediate and satisfactory solution being found 
for the very serious grievances under which the commercial and industrial com- 
munities of the Empire have been labouring for a long time past. 
“That in view of the great object to be attained, this Congress is strongly of the 
opinion that it would be a wise policy to make full provision for ultimate State owner- 
ship in any arrangements hereafter made to lay cables, by private companies, between 
British possessions in any part of the globe. 
“ That this Congress recommends that the principle of State ownership be 
especially provided for in the cable proposed to be laid by a private company between 
South Africa and Australia. 
“ That this Congress urges upon Plis Majesty's Government the importance of 
instituting a searching investigation by the Departmental Committee, promised by the 
Government, into both the shortcomings and the merits of a private system of cables, 
and consequently into the desirability or otherwise of adopting such a course or policy 
in the future as would lead to the ultimate expropriation of private cables, and the 
establishment of State-owned cables throughout the Empire, and to report thereon at 
the earliest opportunity, such a report to be accessible to the public. 
With reference to the first paragraph of the above resolution, you are doubtless fully 
cognizant of the good progress that is being made with the Pacific Cable, which has reached 
Fiji, and is expected to be completed by about the end of the present year. 
These resolutions were forwarded to the Ministers and Colonial Governors 
mentioned in the third paragraph therein, and duly acknowledged. The Secretary of State 
for India promised that the suggestions should receive consideration, in so far as India was 
concerned, on receipt of the recommendations of the Inter-Departmental Committee on 
Cable Communications which had been appointed by the Government and was then 
sitting. 
The Inter-Departmental Committee has now issued its report, which is signed by Lord 
Balfour of Burleigh (Chairman) ; Lord Londonderry (Postmaster-General) ; Mr. Hanbury 
(President of the Board of Agriculture) ; Lord Iiardwicke (Under-Secretary of State for 
India) ; Lord Onslow (Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies) ; Sir John C. Ardagh 
(Director of Military Intelligence) ; and Rear-Admiral Custance (Director of Naval Intelli- 
gence). The following is a summary of the principal recommendations and conclusions of 
the Committee : — 
(i) . In view of the probability of cable-cutting, a variety of alternative routes 
should be provided wherever it is essential to secure telegraphic communication in 
time of war. 
(ii) . Appreciable but not paramount value should be attached to the provision of 
“ all-British ” routes. Every important colony or naval base should be connected with 
this country by one cable touching only on British territory or on the territory of some 
friendly neutral. After this there should be as many alternative cables as possible 
following commercial routes. 
(iii) . We recommend the construction of : — (a) A cable connecting either 
Rodriguez and Ceylon, Cocos-Keeling and Ceylon or Cocos-Keeling and Singapore. 
{{>) A land line connecting the Straits Settlements and Burma, (r) An “all-British ” 
cable to St. Lucia — to be commenced as soon as the state of cable enterprise in the 
West Indies permits. 
(iv) . While land-lines are cheaper to construct and maintain than submarine 
cables, it is in certain cases essential on strategic grounds that the former should not 
be permitted to drive the latter out of the field of competition. 
(v) . We are aware of no power of controlling cable companies possessed by the 
State besides the following : — (a) The power to make stipulations when granting a 
subsidy or guarantee. {/>) The power to employ public funds in competing or 
encouraging competition with private enterprise, (e) The power to grant or withhold 
general facilities. ( d) The power to grant or withhold Government messages and 
unrouted telegrams. (<?) The power to grant or withhold landing rights. 
(vi) . The possible advantage of giving guarantees of minimum revenue in place 
of subsidies should be considered. 
(vii) . No direct pecuniary return should be demanded for landing rights. The 
concessions should, however, be regarded as a check on any marked unreasonableness. 
(viii). The normal policy of this country and its dependencies should be to 
encourage “ free trade in cables.” Exceptions should only be made to this rule on 
the ground of national, not of private, interests. 
(ix). We recommend that the Cables (Landing Rights) Committee should be 
strengthened, and that its functions should be enlarged so as to include the con- 
sideration of all questions relating to cables, that it should be entitled “The Cables 
Committee,” and that it should report direct to the Treasury, the Board of Trade 
being relieved of its present responsibilities with regard to cables. 
(xi) . We are strongly opposed to the general purchase of cables by the State. 
(xii) . We are not prepared to say that any of the existing rates are excessive, 
with the exception of those to the Gold Coast and Nigeria. We recommend that an 
attempt should be made to reduce these in connection with the renewal of the Eastern 
Telegraph Company’s landing rights at Porthcurno in 1903. 
(xii). We would welcome the introduction of “ deferred ” rates in any case where 
— {#) the time required for postal communication is considerable, and (£) the cables 
are not fully occupied with ordinary messages, but (r) are sufficiently occupied to 
admit of a real distinction between ordinary and deferred messages. 
It will thus be seen that the Committee has pronounced emphatically against the general 
purchase of cables by the State ; indeed, it is urged that “ the normal policy of this country 
and its dependencies should be to encourage * free trade in cables,’ ” exception to this rule 
only to be made on the ground of national, not of private, interests. In view of this 
pronouncement, it appears that, in the future as in the past, private enterprise will be left 
to further develop the cable systems of the Empire on commercial lines, but aided by the 
State under certain circumstances (such as for strategic reasons), preferably by means of 
guarantees of minimum revenue in place of subsidies, with sufficient State control necessary 
in the public interest and to correct any marked unreasonableness on the part of the 
companies. With regard to the question of an all-British cable the committee point out 
the value of such a cable in time of war, on the assumption that cables will not be cut by 
belligerents, but it is thought that our strategic arrangements must be made on the assump- 
tion that a considerable proportion of cables will be cut. The committee “thus arrive at 
two principles leading to diametrically opposite conclusions. The more probable it is that 
cables will not be cut, the greater the value of an all-British cable. The more probable it is 
that they can be cut, the greater value of a cable touching on foreign territory.” In view of 
these conflicting consideraiions the Committee have not found it easy to formulate a general 
rule, but the report goes on to say that “we think, however, that appreciable but not 
paramount value must be attached 10 all- British routes ; and we regard it as desirable that 
every important colony or naval base should possess one cable to this country which touches 
only on British territory or on the territory of some friendly neutral. We think that, after 
this, there should be as many alternative cables as possible, but that these should be allowed 
to follow the normal routes suggested by commercial considerations.” 
A long list of cable lines that have been suggested to the Committee is enumerated in 
the report, with the statement that “there is something to be said for the construction of 
any or all of these lines,” but, the report says, “ we do not think that in the majority of cases 
the advantage is such as to justify the State either in constructing them itself or in aiding 
their construction from public funds.” Exceptions are made, however, in favour of the three 
cables mentioned in paragraph (iii) of the summarized recommendations of the Committee 
(quoted above), on purely strategic grounds. 
As to rates, the Committee “are not prepared to say that any of the existing rates are 
excessive, with the exception of those to the Gold Coast and Nigeria,” and they recommend 
that an attempt should be made to reduce these in connexion with the renewal of the 
Eastern Telegraph Company’s landing rights in Cornwall next year. The report also states 
that “we would welcome the introduction of ‘deferred rates ’ in certain specified cases." 
At a meeting of the Chamber, held on the 3rd ult., Mr. H. C. Richards, K.C., M.P., 
gave an address on “ The Commercial and Agricultural Potentialities of Burma.” Lord 
Brassf.y occupied the chair. Mr. Richards said that trading prospects of Burma are 
not only numerous, but encouraging. Its population are cheerful, happy, prosperous and 
contented, and the land is ripe for colonization and development. The Burman has been 
described as the Irishman of the East, but if he has any of the happy-go-lucky characteristics 
of the south and west of Ireland, his better half has every desire to follow the business-like 
habits of the Ulster trader, and all the thriftiness of the original Scotch character. 
The Burman mother is the retail trader of the Bazaar in ever}' city, and she is not averse 
marriages outside her own race when she finds that the pushing Chinaman and the quiet 
Hindu is prepared to work for his own living, as well as his spending money. A visit to a 
Burman town or villoge on a feast day reveals at once the greater spending power of the 
Burman as compared to the native of India. Even in the matter of recreation the Burman, 
in spite of every obstacle, made ten railway journeys as against one made by Indians. He 
spent his money in silk attire, and his wite invested in gold ornaments and diamonds. She 
had not yet learned to appreciate, as the Egyptian has done, our system of savings banks. 
Fortunately the wealth of Burma, outside the Ruby Mines district, was distinctly 
agricultural, and it could produce all the rice and more that the millions of India required. 
It has proved this by the figures of the famine year when, thanks to Burma’s supply, there 
was no difficulty in getting rice if the money was forthcoming. For grass, Lower Burma had 
easily made up the deficit in the expenses of our newer annexation, but last year Upper Burma 
paid its way, and there was a million surplus for the Indian Budget ; this ought to have 
been locally invested in railway and other productive works which were much required, as any 
one who had the misfortune to travel, or send goods by the Burma Railway, would personally 
endorse. Fortunately for the trade and prosperity of Burma it has four great waterways, and 
the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company provided the best trade route in the world, and one which 
some day or other would admit of export and import through the Chinese districts which were 
our boundaries at Bhamo and in the Shan States. A difficult defile had only to be treated 
like the Iron Gates on the Danube, and with a more liberal spirit Chinese trade might be at 
once quadrupled. , 
Better than its rubies were the oilfields of Burma, where if the Government Department 
was a little less narrow and a little more patriotic, a great output for British capital and native 
labour might be secured, for in India the Russian oil had decreased the American import to 
three million gallons, against the Russian output of fifty-seven millions. 
The Rockefeller interest and the vendors of the Deadly Tea Rose were at work in Burma, 
and trying to get concessions from Government, which would at once enable them to crush the 
British investor, and to leave its havoc among the native villages, which it did now in our 
crowded areas, and it would be the height of absurdity if British commerce was to be ousted 
by the open door. The traders of Burma at Rangoon and Mandalay had approached the 
London Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Chambers, which the Secretary of State for 
Indiaso far refused to recognize, and their protests had been passed by in the appointment for 
a second time of a Civil Servant Chief Judge, which was impossible in any Indian High 
Court, owing to the statutes establishing them. The complaint of the trader was a definite 
one : all the suits he had were either of a commercial character on the construction of docu- 
ments and contracts, or they were revenue disputes between the traders and the Government, 
and the commercial community objected to the civil servant whose first idea was to get 
revenue, and the second to uphold the executive, being transferred from the post of 
Government servant to that of judge in his own cause. 
It was a real and pressing grievance, and the English people might just as well be gov- 
erned by Somerset House and the officials of the Treasury. The only men in India who 
could afford to be independent were the judiciary, and to place them under a promoted civil 
servant was a derogation of power and of duty. The native press, as well as the trading 
community, protested against the action of the Government in this matter. The future of 
Burma was one of great interest, for it was said that the Hindu from India and the German 
trader from Europe would push out the Burman, and undersell the English. Burma was no 
doubt, year by year, increasing her harvest fields and her harvest. Who was to reap them ? 
On these questions the Chambers of Commerce must speak their mind. 
