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commercial character, and, while always desirous of offering every facility to the public, the first duty of its Directors must be that of obtaining a fair and just remuneration for the shareholders who have embarked in the scheme.
Up to the present time, I regret to say, the returns are not such as an undertaking of this class should command. The yearly earnings do not admit of a dividend commensurate with the speculative nature of the scheme, nor do they allow of an adequate sum being laid by in reserve to meet the accidents and contingencies to which submarine cables are always liable. This has been felt by all Submarine Telegraph Companies without exception, and a general raising of the tariff has been the consequence.
With regard to the limitation of the length of words, I would observe that the telegraphing public invariably use "Codes," in which one word conveys the meaning of a sentence. To the establishment of this system the Company offered no objection; but when the words selected were of the greatest possible length, and sometimes compound words-instances not being infrequent of a compound of more than one language-it appeared that the privilege was being considerably abused. The matter was first taken up by the Indo-European Government Telegraph Department, and after discussion at St Petersburg, the length of a word was fixed by the Convention at 10 letters, which is more than the average length of ordinary English words. As almost all messages are sent in code, this restriction will not, in practice, be felt so hard as you seem to apprehend, it being competent to the compiler to select his words irrespective of sense, merely taking care that their length does not exceed 10 letters.
With regard to addresses, I would beg to point out that the Company endeavours to give every facility possible by allowing a system of registration, which enables the sender of a message to compress into one word the name and residence of his correspondent. Thus, the word "Pension" may mean Messrs. THOMAS LEYBOURN BROTHERS AND COMPANY, 150, Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, in all 11 words, which would otherwise be required to ensure the correct delivery of the message. In addition to this, the sender is charged for the name of the terminal town or country which is required for the safe delivery of the message during the transmission. The most complicated address can, therefore, be compressed into two words.
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links in the communication with Europe, either via India or via Siberia, declaring their intention of charging all figures at a higher rate, both on account of the additional trouble and time they require in transmission, and also on account of the difficulty of their containing secret meaning.
With reference to the three points noticed by you, I would beg to recapitulate that with regard to Nos. 2 and 3, this Company has no control whatever, as they are imposed by the rules of the St Petersburg Convention, nor can the Company break these rules, as, in that case, the Government of India would refuse the messages unless drawn up in conformity with them. With regard to the first point, I have already shown that the receipts of the Company do not justify the Directors in making any deductions, nor after all has the Company any very great power to do so, as they could only make them on the Company's own share of each message, it not being in their power to alter the charges of the Indian Government, or of the lines working between India and Europe.
There is, I observe, another point incidentally mentioned by you with regard to payment for "garbled" messages. This subject was warmly taken up by all the Companies, and, at their request, it has been conceded that should the receiver of a message find any part of it unintelligible, he can, by application to the Company's Superintendent, on giving satisfactory reason for supposing a mistake to have been made, obtain a repetition of the words in dispute without charge.
In conclusion, I would beg to state that the Directors of this Company are always glad to receive expressions of opinion from the public, and more especially from an influential institution like the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce, and I beg, therefore, to thank you for the trouble you have taken in communicating your views.
To the Chairman of
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed,)
J. G. GLOVER, Managing Director.
The Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce, Hongkong,
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