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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Cable has shrunken to such proportions, and that of the Eastern increased to such proportions, as to warrant us reaching the conclusion that the Eastern Extension Cable Company is to-day enjoying the advantage of concessions, temporary perhaps, but nevertheless for the time being concessions.
It would, I think, be necessary for us at some stage in our proceedings to cover just such a point as that concessions on sufferance for the moment are just as pre- judicial to the interest of the Cable Company so long as they are in existence as if they are secure for a long term, and I would think it expedient for us to adopt a proposition to this effect that hereafter none of the partners of this concern, that 18, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand should do anything to the prejudice of the interest of the Cable Company or permit to be done anything to the prejudice without the consent at least of the other partners.
The CHAIRMAN: Yes, that seems to me at the present moment rather a subject for deferred consideration.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: Probably.
The CHAIRMAN: I quite agree that the situation of the Pacific cable and the relations of the various States to it should very properly become a subject of definition and clearer definition hereafter, but at present what we want to get from the Commonwealth Government is their assent to the proposition which in different form has now been placed before the Conference both by myself and by Sir William Mulock.
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Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: I do not suggest that it should go along with this despatch.
The CHAIRMAN: No.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: But I mention it contemporaneously with it because I do not think that the removal of the New South Wales Agreement itself solves all the difficulties that at present confront us.
The CHAIRMAN: Quite.
The EARL OF JERSEY: No.
The CHAIRMAN: Of course, one of the merits which may commend it to Sir Sandford, that with these difficulties we have all the materials for dealing hereafter in exactly the same way as we have now at this period.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: If we were silent on that point this agreement that we are wishing to have amended might be amended, but the Commonwealth or some other Government in some other country might to-morrow enter into some new arrangement that would be equally damaging.
The CHAIRMAN: Quite.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: And we should all be bound, not Australia alone, but all Governments. I would not think it wise to pointedly pick out one, and say it was the only offending Government.
The CHAIRMAN: No.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: But lay down a code of morals for us all.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: May I look at that telegram?
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: Oh, certainly, certainly: it was intended for you.
The CHAIRMAN: Do you accept that, Lord Jersey ?
The EARL OF JERSEY: Yes, it seems to me one which I could certainly send out to my Government.
The CHAIRMAN: I wanted to have the imprimatur of your sanction to it, of your approval, and pass it as a resolution of the Conference.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: That is the better form, I think, to read it as a resolution.
"
The CHAIRMAN: Yes.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: And then Sir Sandford can cable the substance. The CHAIRMAN: He can cable the substance of it.
The EARL OF JERSEY: I suppose in my position I must put in the words 'subject to communication to my Government" or something like that.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: Just at this stage, I would like to know before assenting to that I was rather drafting what seemed to be the general opinion of the Board than as a proposition that I wished at this moment to support, because I want to know what view New Zealand will take with regard to that proposition first.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: Well, I am afraid I cannot assent to the first three lines.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: You cannot?
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: Not easily.
The CHAIRMAN: The Conference is satisfied-
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: The whole Conference is not satisfied. Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: The whole Conference is not satisfied.
The CHAIRMAN: That the New South Wales Agreement with the Telegraph Company is interminable except by the consent of parties.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: We take the ground that it is an improper agreement
in the first place; that it should never have been made.
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: But we have had a legal opinion given us this morning, Sir Sandford, that it cannot be terminated; rights of new parties have arisen under the contract.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: In my stupidity I did not quite see it. I would stultify myself after what I have just said if I assented to that.
The CHAIRMAN: This is less committal, Sir Sandford, "the Conference is advised "—and you might retain your view that that advice is wrong.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: Yes.
The CHAIRMAN: "The Conference is advised that the New South Wales Agree- ment is interminable except by consent of parties thereto."
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: You would not say by legal?
The CHAIRMAN: No, "is advised." Well, you might put "legally advised."
Sir WILLIAM MULOCK: By legal authority.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: Who gave the advice?
The CHAIRMAN: Our adviser at the Colonial Office.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: By Colonial Office legal adviser.
The CHAIRMAN: "By the legal adviser at the Colonial Office"; yes, certainly. 'And that the proposed Commonwealth Agreement is unsatisfactory, in that it does not unconditionally rescind the New South Wales nor itself terminate uncon- ditionally at a fixed date, Conference therefore invites Commonwealth Government We need not draft that, you know, in the way suggested to amend agreement." here. I think that that, if I may say so, takes you several steps up the ladder, and does not take your enemies any distance at all; I think so; you might write
it out.
LORD STRATHCONA : Perhaps Sir Sanuford would prefer to rescind; still there is nothing against asking them either to rescind or to amend.
Sir SANDFORD FLEMING: I would very much prefer that.