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Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
Oxford Court, next 109, Cannon Street,
London, E.C., December 22, 1903. Fifth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, Montreal, 1903. MY LORD,
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a copy of a resolution unanimously carried at the above Congress on the question of State-owned telegraphs, together with extract from Official Report of the Congress, containing the speeches delivered in the discussion which took place on the resolution.
The Congress was unanimously of opinion that all the self-governing British communities around the globe should be united by a continuous chain of State-owned telegraphs, and this opinion has from time to time been confirmed by various other associations and the commercial community generally.
The Committee, therefore, trust that every effort will be made by your Department to perfect the means of communication between the Mother Country and her Colonies and Dependencies, believing that such efforts would constitute the most effective means of uniting the various parts of the Empire.
I have been instructed by the Committee to forward a copy of this resolution to the Colonial Office and to the Treasury.
I am, &c.,
The Right Honourable Lord Stanley,
H.M. Postmaster-General,
General Post Office, E.C.
STATE-OWNED TELEGRAPHIS.
KENRIC B. MURRAY,
Secretary.
The Acting Chairman: The next resolution on the agenda is number 61, Wireless Telegraphy, proposed by the London Chamber of Commerce. The London Chamber of Commerce I understand withdraws that resolution and wishes that the resolution of the Ottawa and Toronto Board of Trade should take its place. Is it your pleasure that this should be done?
Agreed.
Sir Sandford Fleming (Ottawa) moved :-
"That in the opinion of this Congress all the self-governing British communities around the globe should be united by a continuous chain of State-owned telegraphs. That such an inter-Imperial line of com- munication would, under Government control, put an end to the difficulty which has been caused by the allied cable companies in Australia, and remove all friction which has arisen between the partners in the Pacific cable: That it would lower charges to a minimum on over-sea messages passing between New Zealand, Australia, India, South Africa, the West Indies, Newfoundland, Canada, and the Mother Country; that it would provide a double means of communication at low uniform rates between the Mother Country or any one British State and all self-governing British States; that it would constitute the most effective means by which the several governmental units of the Empire may hold communion with each other whenever they desire, and that while it would be of the highest importance to the commercial and social interests of the British people around the world, it would, by the subtle force of electricity, at once promote the consolidation of the Empire and prove an indispensable factor in Imperial Unity."
Sir Sandford Fleming: Mr. President and Members of the Congress: The proposal is that all the self-governing British possessions should be connected telegraphically by a State-owned and State-controlled chain of electric
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telegraph; that it should be a continuous chain girdling the Empire and encircling the globe so that in the event of interruption from any cause, telegraphic communication may nevertheless be maintained by sending messages in the opposite direction; that the submarine portions be laid, for better security in deep water, and that no part of the electric telegraph circle touch land which is not British. (Applause.)
That is the whole scheme. The Pacific Cable recently laid between Canada and Australasia is regarded as part of it. The cost involved in completing the whole scheme is estimated not to exceed four million pounds sterling. It would be held in common ownership by Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, India, and South Africa. Its objects would not be to earn large dividends, but as a self-supporting undertaking to serve great Imperial ends, to cheapen telegraphy to a minimum, to secure intercourse, to promote trade, and generally to contribute to the advancement and well being of the British people in both hemispheres. (Applause.)
As to its necessity, Sir, I have much to say on behalf of those I have the honour to represent. I shall, however, content myself at this late stage of the Congress by submitting a letter addressed to the President of the British Empire League in Canada, which I desire to have placed upon the record. The letter is as follows:-
SIR,
British Empire League in Canada.
Toronto Office: 38, Canada Life Building, Toronto, August 20, 1903.
THE Executive Committee of the British Empire League has the honour to direct attention to a matter of inter-Imperial importance affecting the relations of Canada, New Zealand, the Mother Country, and Australia.
The Eastern Extension Telegraph Company and the Government of Australia have, subject to the approval of the Parliament of the Common- wealth, entered into an agreement which, if ratified, would be inimical to the Pacific cable and destroy the harmony which should exist between Australia and Canada, New Zealand, and other parts of the Empire.
The Government of Canada and New Zealand have expostulated against the proposed agreement, and expressed the hope that the Parliament of the Commonwealth will not ratify it.
The "British Empire Review" (London) for July 1903 draws special attention to the conciliatory attitude adopted by the British Empire League in Canada, and in particular to the discussion at its last annual meeting in Ottawa, and to the resolution unanimously passed on that occasion.
The Executive Committee of the League begs leave to submit for your information a report of the proceedings respecting the Pacific Cable at the annual meeting.
The object advocated is the completion of the Empire-girdling State- owned telegraph system, of which the Pacific Cable is regarded as the initial section. If Australia is the theatre of the dispute, it is because a private monopoly has come into hostile contact with public interests within the limits of the Commonwealth; but the question is not an Australian one simply, it concerns the whole family of British nations, as all must suffer in this instance from the triumph of the monopoly.
There is only one effective remedy: it is to provide means independent of the monopoly of uniting telegraphically all the great outposts of the Empire so as to bring them into direct touch with the Mother Country and with each other. This object is not difficult of attainment: it can be effected by extending the principle of State ownership to a single cable traversing the Indian Ocean, and another traversing the Atlantic Ocean precisely as we have one across the Pacific Ocean. To accomplish this end it may in part become necessary, if not otherwise arranged, to subordinate private to public interests, and exercise the powers of "Eminent Domain" by which private property may be appropriated as public necessity requires just compensation being paid. By this inherent right possessed by the State, the dominant idea of a
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