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MEMORANDUM.
The accompanying correspondence relates to proposals for the establishment of wireless telegraph stations in Singapore, Hong Kong, and North Borneo.
It is taken for granted that a high-power station will be erected at Singapore in due course for communication with India and Australia. It is also proposed to establish small stations at Penang and Singapore for ship-and-shore work; but the Committee is asked to consider whether any useful purpose would be served by making the Singapore station somewhat larger than an ordinary ship-and-shore station, so that it might be used for communication with British North Borneo or other places.
It is presumably out of the question to establish a high-power station in British North Borneo as suggested by the Company, but the Committee is asked to consider whether the Government should suggest to the Company the establishment of a station of somewhat higher power than at present proposed, for communication with Singapore or Hong Kong. It is understood that the stations at present contemplated by the Company are to be 2'5 kw. Telefunken stations, with a day range over the sea of 470 miles and a night range of 900 miles.
The Committee is aware that the Imperial scheme in its present form does not extend to Hong Kong, and, as the distance from Singapore is only 1,400 miles, the high-power station eventually to be erected there need not in any case, apparently, come within the terms of the Marconi contract. The Governor must presumably be informed, in reply to his telegram of 4th October, that a high-power station at Hong Kong cannot be included in the initial scheme. The officer recently administering the Government of Hong Kong, it will be seen, recommended the establishment of a medium-power station with a range of 850 miles, but the new Governor, in his despatch of 10th September, reports that in his opinion a range of 300 would be sufficient. The Committee may consider that the needs of Hong Kong and Singapore will be adequately met by the provision of ordinary ship-and-shore stations at each place, open at night as well as at daytime, especially having regard to the proposed stations in North Borneo, until such time as the Government is prepared to proceed with the establishment of a station at Hong Kong capable of regular day and night communication with Singapore.
GEORGE W. JOHNSON.
18th October 1912.
(Signed)
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efficiently communicating over distances as great as that between Singapore and Hong Kong for about 30,000l. without any subsequent royalty payments such as are provided in the Imperial wireless scheme. In any case since in the agreement with the Company for that schems a long-distance installation" is defined as working over not less than 2,000 geographical miles," a high-power station at Hong Kong (for efficient communication with Singapore, a distance of less than 1,400 geographical miles) would not come under clause 3, and would have to form the subject of a separate bargain.
The Secretary,
General Post Office.
SIR,
I am, &c.,
(Signed)
Enclosures.
H. J. READ,
For the Under-Secretary of State.
1. GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Government House, Hong Kong,
15th April 1912. WITH reference to the first paragraph of your confidential despatch of the 16th February last, I have the honour to transmit for your consideration the enclosed correspondence, regarding the selection of a site in this Colony for a medium-power commercial wireless station, and I should be glad to learn whether in view of the letter of the 22nd March" from Major-General C. A. Anderson and that of the 3rd April from Commodore C. J. Eyres you are prepared to approve of the proposed site on the south end of the d'Aguilar Peninsula.
2. I shall also be glad to learn whether you concur in the report of the Committee (Enclosure 1), in which the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce expressed their agreement (Enclosure 7") that if a commercial station is erected it should be of medium power, having a day range of 850 miles.
3. I have just received your confidential despatch of the 15th March transmitting a copy of a letter from the Admiralty, No. M. 0361/12 of the 12th March. The site proposed at Point d'Aguilar for the low-power station fulfils the condition laid down in that letter as the distance from the proposed high-power station is about eight miles.
I have, &c., (Signed) CLAUD SEVERN,
The Right Hon. Lewis Harcourt, M.P.
&c.
&c.
&c.
Officer Administering the Government.
SIR,
CORRESPONDENCE IN REGARD TO HONG KONG.
I-COLONIAL OFFICE to POST OFFICE.
28th August 1912.
Wrrn reference to the letter from this department of the 31st May, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to transmit to you, for the consideration of the Postmaster-General, the accompanying copies of despatches from the Officer adminis- tering the Government of Hong Kong on the subject of the proposed commercial wireless station in that Colony, together with copy of a letter from the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company forwarding copy of the specification and drawings referred to in the despatch of 6th June.
2. Subject to any observations that the Postmaster-General may have to offer, Mr. Harcourt proposes to inform the Governor that this suggested 30-kilowatt station, which would not be able to reach Singapore except at night time, would serve no useful purpose, if it is decided later to erect a station of higher power at Hong Kong capable of working by day or night with the station at Singapore in connection with the Imperial wireless scheme, and that it will, therefore, be desirable for the Colonial Government at present merely to erect a low-power station for communication with ships.
3. I am at the same time to enclose a copy of a recent letter from the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company to the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, from which it will be observed that the Company would apparently provide a station capable of
* Not printed.
SIR,
2. GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Government House, Hong Kong, 6th June 1912. REFERRING to paragraph 2 of your confidential despatch of 4th May," in which you asked to be informed why it was considered desirable that the proposed low-power station should have a range of 850 miles, I have the honour to refer you to my confidential despatch of 15th April and to state that the reasons which guided the Committee in coming to the decision that if a commercial station were erected it should be of medium power having a range of 850 miles were that such range would give communication with Shanghai, Formosa, and the Philippine Islands, and most probably with French Indo-China by day and by night with the Straits Settlements, Japan, and equivalent distances.
2. The Chamber of Commerce, as I informed you in my despach of 15th April, concurred with the Committee, and I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that a low-power station having a range of 300 miles would fall far short of the commercial requirements of Hong Kong.
* Not printed.
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