File 5646/1918 'Persia and Mesopotamia: future telegraphic arrangements' [‎23v] (56/303)

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Memorandum by Director-in-Chief, Indo-European Telegraph Department, dated
1st December 1919.
Thono-li I do not see how the terms of Colonel Wilson’s telegram of 29th
September can have been expected to convey the inference he now gives to it I do
not think it has had much influence on the decisions arrived at by Lord Milner’s
Committee at their 9ih and 11th meetings. The Committee is being pressed on
all sides to reduce the congestion m telegraph tiaffic thioughout the globe, and the
Indo-Eurooean Telegraph Company having come foiward with a definite pioposal for
a project which will materially assist to that end, a project which (ho\eminent is not
prepared itself to undertake at the present time, and for wdiich the terms the Company
offer are so favourable to Government (see I.C.C. paper No. 168 attached), the
Committee has, it appears to me, no alternative but to accept them. It will be seen
that the Government can purchase the Company’s property after 1924, or at any time
thereafter on two years’ notice. At the end of 25 years the system will, presumably,
become Government property without any payment, and for purchase before this time
the rates proposed are on a sliding scale.
The Imperial Communications Committee at their 11th meeting resolved : —
(«) That the Postmaster-General should be requested to agree to the terms
proposed by the Indo-European Telegraph Company for the laying of two
cables through the Mediterranean; that some reference should be made
in the terms of the agreement to the question of keeping the cables in a
proper state of repair, and that the Company should be informed that a
route through Haifa would, it is thought, be the most preferable.
(b) That as regards a land line to connect up with their cables on the Syrian or
Palestine coast, the Company should be informed : —
(i) That in the case of any territory which comes under British
control, the Government will either allow the Company to erect their
own line, or to arrange to lease to them a wu're or wires to carry
their traffic.
(ii) That in the case of any territory or territories under the
control of a foreign Powder or Powers, the Government wdll give the
Company their diplomatic support in their negotiations for concessions.
(i.ii) That it wdll be preferable in the case of any land lines that may
be erected by the Company for these lines to run so far as practicable
through such of those territories as are, or may come, under British
control.
With that resolution I have tentatively agreed. The Secretary of the Committee,
in communicating the terms of the resolution to the Post Office representative, has, at
my request, asked him to defer taking action on it until I have obtained the approval
of the Secretary of State.
Besides the reasons stated above my further i easons for agreeing with the terms
of the resolution are :—
(1) Thai the provision of additional circuits by Government east of the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
would be of little assistance unless they are also continued to the westward, and the
Company would probably not consider it worth their while to provide the latter,
unless they are allowed to provide the former as well.
(2i I pointed out in my note of the 24th December 1918 the advantage the
Indo-European Telegraph Department derives from its partnership in the Cis-Indian
Joint .Purse Agreement, and it seems to me most desirable that every effort should be
made to keep this agreement in being, and this can only be clone by the revival of an
“ Indo ” route. *
(3) It is to be remembered that although the old “ Indo ” route is unusable at
the moment, a turn of the wheel of fate may make it, in the not very distant future,
once more available. Assuming that the Cis-Indian Joint Purse Agreement has ceased
to exist, it is possible to conceive of a situation arising in which the Mesopotamian
route would find itself in competition with the Eastern Telegraph Company on one
side, and a rival system, possibly foreign, on the other. If these rivals combine the
Mesopotamian route will be starved. It seems to me therefore wdser for Mesopotamia
to prevent such a situation arising, to come to terms for a fair division of the traffic
while there is yet time.
m i - C ° l0 u e ri ^ llson that the admission into Mesopotamia of the Indo-European
leiegraph Company will lead to a reduction of the revenue he' hopes to obtain from