The Congo River has constantly broken the cables, like the Rovuma River on the East Coast. Thus Germany, too, has accomplished her desire of obtaining cable connection with the Far East independently of British cables. Similarly, France has contemplated a line from Marseilles to Jaffa in Syria, thence to the Gulf of Akabah, and so down the Red Sea to Madagascar southwards, and Cochin-China in the East. For, though the bed of that ocean is usually of a nature favourable to cables, yet there is a danger arising from banks, due to the deposit of great blocks of rock brought down from Greenland into the North Atlantic by the icebergs. As the icebergs pass Newfoundland they sail into warmer waters and melt, so that for hundreds of miles a new Ireland is being formed down below. The actual cost of the most recent British cable laid across the Atlantic from Ireland to Newfoundland was £450,000, which works out at a cost of £220 per mile.

This works out at £8 15s. per mile. In return for this privilege allowed us by the Americans, we must grant the Americans the privilege of landing their cables in Canada on the way to Europe, (c) No doubt if the American-owned cables were beating our cables out of the field, it would become a question whether, in spite of the above observations, our Government should allow such cables to utilize British territory for that purpose. The question naturally arises, Why are American cables allowed to unite Canada and Great Britain in competition with British cables? It is by being allowed to collect a portion of that traffic in the United States by the agency of their American connections that our five British cables chiefly maintain their power to live. Hence the cables are landed in Canada or Newfoundland, as constituting a convenient half-way house on the road to the rich American traffic centres. Although the permanent connection with Canada was established in 1866, it was not till 1872 that the system of charging so much per word was introduced. On the whole subject of our connection by cable with Canada there seems no reason for disputing the conclusion of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Cable Communications, which sat in 1902 under the presidency of Lord Balfour of Burleigh.

The reason for the laying of these four latter cables has been rather political than commercial. I give them merely as warning to those who forget what a vast expense is incurred in laying and maintaining cables, and what enormous risks have to be run by private persons who embark on that business. The German companies, who live on their State subsidies, would occupy the field abandoned by ourselves. Of the remaining four cables, two are French and two are German. The cause of these frequent fluctuations has been the more or less fierce struggle waged in the Atlantic, with some intermissions, since 1868, when the French entered the field in rivalry with the British. I cannot imagine, therefore, a more ill-judged proposition. It is the dream, or perhaps more than the dream, of Germany to make it effective. The succeeding, and still reigning, Manchu Dynasty stopped further European aggression for two centuries, until the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. By the latter date the Manchu Dynasty, which had been, in the persons of Kangshi and Kienlung, more politic than the Moguls and more successful than the Cæsars, was decadent.

Moreover, to mitigate the undue competition a 'pool' was formed, and still exists, between the two English companies and one of the American companies. This is an enormous sum to dump into a river, it seems, but since the river is captured and all interests immune from further trouble, the two companies feel amply rewarded. Five are owned by two British companies, and the remaining seven by two American companies. The answer is threefold: (a) American cables landing on British shores fall, ipso facto, under British control in case of war, and therefore can only add to our strategic resources. In 1881 American rivalry began under the auspices of Mr. Jay Gould, and became formidable in 1884, when the Commercial Cable Company, also of America, began operations. Nevertheless, though the line to South Africa had thus been duplicated in 1889, even this position, as time passed, began to appear inadequate to the organizers of British cable enterprise. Directly south of Halifax in Nova Scotia lie our West Indian possessions. This route was opened in 1869. Though managed as far as Teheran by an English company, the Indo-European Telegraph Company, and from Teheran to Karachi by the Indian Government Department, it is owned in its German section by Germany.

If you enjoyed this short article and you would certainly like to obtain additional info regarding what is control cable kindly see our web-page.