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not be debarred from making developments in their Communications
services which would be of commercial interest to the Colony,
provided such facilities were not otherwise obtaimble.
MR. VERNON said it could be pointed out that it was the settled
policy of the Colonial Office not to authorise the development of
services which would be in direct competition with the Company and
that the Governments or Malaya and Hong Kong shalabe instructed to
bear in mind that they may be asked at some future date to transfer
all their services to the Company including the developments which
they have made.
SIR PHILIP CUNLIFFE LISTER, referring to the recommendation of the
Imperial and Wireless Conference of 1928, suggested that instructions
to the Colonies could be based on this idea but it required
amplification. He asked what the specific requirements of Hong Kong
were.
MR. VERNON, in reply, stated that the Committee were not in
possession of the detailed requirements of Hong Kong, and though
Hong Kong had been asked to specify what improvement in services they
required, the reply had not been entirely satisfactory.
AIR COMMODORE WARRINGTON-MORRIS suggested that the Colonies might
be informed that they could develop such telephonic services as they
desired, but that any point-to-point W/T services should be referred for
approval.
SIR PHILIP CUNLIFFE LISTER suggested that the Colonial Office,
in consultation with the Treasury, should prepare a despatch to be
forwarded to the Governors of Hong Kong and Malaya, on the lines he had
indicated. The Colonies should not be precluded from developing
services which would be not in competition with the existing
facilities, but there must be no question of cutting in for the
sake of cutting in. As regards the W/T service to Japan, this
would be indefensible, as the existing cable facilities were adequate
16.