ملف ٥٦٤٦\١٩١٨ "بلاد فارس وبلاد الرافدين: ترتيبات التلغراف المستقبلية" [و‎‎٢‎٥] (٣٠٣/٥٩)

an
capital expenditure incurred by the Company in re-establishing the route less
abatement proportionate to the time during which the concession had already n,7
mu' -V'n th he - ?,? nt n 01 ° f U ' te i •’ ° lause ’ of which a «opy was recently sent to
J on, should appear m the Company s licence in the standard form which is now bekm
inserted m all new licences granted to cable companies. ' ~
I am, &c,,
G. E. P. Murray.
Sir
Indo-European Telegraph Company to General Post O ffice
dated '21th November 1919.
1 beg to acknowledge the letter of the General Post Office of 18th November
a f T T t0 fon that the directors of this Company much appreciate the willingness
of Ills Majesty s Government to concede with minor modifications the terms set forth
m si stance iPany S letter dated 6th November ’ and particularly the promised diplomatic
Much additional informaiion has reached the directors since that letter was
written, and they have repeatedly met to consider the question of the reopenitm of
the Company s route in all its bearings. •
It would appear that there is a strong feeling amongst those whose views must
of necessity carry weight with the Board that, were the Company to reopen their
route ria the Mediterranean, that route would vis d vis the public be practically
indistinguishable from that of the Eastern Telegraph Company, with a possible
danger of absorption by that Company, and further that on this account the raising
ol the necessary capital would present difficulties that were not till now anticipated
even if the state of the money market were to become more favourable again.
With the. exclusion of the Mediterranean route the directors had to ask
themselves again what alternatives remain.
Ou the 2\st August 1919 they submitted a scheme for the reopeniuo- of the Indo
ime by means of submarine cables between Great Britain and Denmark and Denmark
and Danzig.
From your letter of 18th November the directors learned that the Imperial
Communications Committee were not averse to the adoption of this route by the
Company, but that they.were of opinion that it would not offer the same security as
the Mediterranean. Phis is readily admitted by the directors, the most dangerous
section of the line being doubtless between Danzig and Warsaw, where the wires
would traverse the “ corridor.”
further considerations affecting the value of the Danzig route to some extent are
that such a route, which would rely upon Warsaw as the point of collection and
distribution by the Company of continental traffic with the East and Far East, might
possibly leave an opportunity for a competing German route between Berlin
Constantinople and the Baghdad Railway. There might also be some danger of
conflict of interests between the Company and the Great Northern Telegraph Company
though, generally speaking, the international traffic carried by the latter company is
of origin m Europe distinct from that of the Indo Company. ‘ ^ ’
Ihe diiectoi.s consider it right to refer to this question of continental traffic at
some length, as in the past it has always been an attractive and remunerative feature
of our system. In the future it will doubtless acquire increased importance as the
development not only of the European States but of the countries and districts
bordering upon the Baghdad Railway, Anatolia, Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia in
particular, will probably largely increase the volume of such traffic.
It is well at this point to emphasise the fact that this Company has always been,
and known as,, a land line. A land line has distinctive features as opposed to a cable
line, the principal one, in the case of this Company, being the advantage of which we
have always availed ourselves, namely,.the direct transmission of all traffic between
this country and India with the benefit of great working speed and elimination of
errors. The directors feel that these are essential conditions and should be carefully
preserved in the interests of the telegraphing public.
Apart from the objections stated above, a route via Danzig would have the
disadvantages of mtei polatmg into our land line route a series of cables between
Great Britain, Denmark and Danzig, which would not only affect the working of the
system to a certain extent, but would have the disadvantage that under ^present
conditions cables are both costly and difficult to procure and to lay.