PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
885
17 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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I share very fully with every one with whom I have conferred the opinion that satisfactory results must reasonably be expected to follow the establish- ment of a wisely arranged Intelligence Department. The Imperial press service suggested would tell its story and perform its functions, not once, not intermittently, but daily throughout every year. It would, like the continual dropping of water, produce effective results. By means of this perennial flow we may confidently hope to have the spirit and principles of the British Constitution, in course of time, pervading, invigorating, vivifying the whole Empire, and it is firmly believed that such results would be accomplished more speedily and more thoroughly than by any other means whatever. It is this spirit and these principles, inherited from the centuries, which would beget that sympathy and affection which, although as light as the air we breathe, would constitute the cohesive forces to bind together the Empire, under the one flag and Sovereign, as with bonds of steel.
As a Business Proposition.
Looking at the establishment of the Empire Cables as a business proposition three questions arise :-
(1) What expenditure of capital will be required?
(2) Who shall bear the cost?
(3) What returns may be expected?
As to the first question. The initial section is already completed as a joint State-undertaking. This cable extends under the Pacific Ocean from Bamfield, ou the west coast of Canada, to Doubtless Bay, on the coast of New Zealand, and Southport, on the eastern coast of Australia. The exact cost of this undertaking is known. We also know the cost of the best description of copper-wired land telegraphs, with full equipment for rapid transmission over any distance. On the basis of this known data, it is estimated that the maximum expenditure of 5,000,000l. would complete the globe-girdling chain of Empire Cable, with connecting land lines. This chain would include a nationalized line from London across the Atlantic to Canada, and through Canada to Bamfield on the Pacific; also the necessary land lines through Australia, and nationalized cables across the Indian Ocean to India and South Africa; including also State-owned cables from South Africa to England via Barbados and Bermuda.
The second question, “Who shall bear the cost," obviously is a matter for negotiation, and must for the present remain undetermined. It may, however, be said that the cost should be borne by all the Governments concerned, in proportions to be agreed upon. On this principle the Pacific cable was established; New Zealand, with the three Australian States (New South Wales, Victoria, and (Queensland), each agreed to bear two-eighteenths of the cost, while the remaining ten-eighteenthis was divided between the United Kingdom and Canada in equal proportions. In the larger project, the whole Commonwealth of Australia, comprising six States, is interested. India is especially interested, the South African States are interested, and likewise the West Indies. The Dominion of Canada is interested, and still more so, the Home Government, representing the United Kingdom, many Crown Colonies, and indeed the whole Empire. In due time it will become the duty of statesmen representing these several interests to arrange who shall bear the cost, and in what proportions.
"L
The third question is already in part answered in the paper appended on State Cables and Cheap Telegraphy as Aids to Imperial Consolidation." It is there demonstrated that the Pacific cable, working only half time, that is to say, twelve hours in each twenty-four, would at an extremely low charge for transmitting ordinary messages yield a revenue considerably more than sufficient to cover all working expenses. I am firm in the conviction that it would be precisely the same with the completed Empire Cables, and that they would be at liberty, during a number of hours every day in the year, to transmit regularly the free press messages desired to be sent by the Imperial Intelligence Department.
Its
The system of Empire Cables is not designed simply to earn large money profits for shareholders, by imposing a tax on mutual intercourse. purpose is as far as possible to remove that tax. It is not designed to pay ordinary dividends, its dividends will take a new form. Its objects are to
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render a district service to all classes of the British people in all quarters of the globe, to safeguard their vital interests, and effectively promote the continued growth and free development of the Empire.
The Views of eminent Canadians.
Attention is invited to the letters I have mentioned as having been received from a number of gentlemen of the highest eminence in Canada. I have already referred to the emphatic opinions of the commercial men of the Empire, deliberately declared by their representatives in the meetings and Congress of Chambers of Commerce. But the men of business, although a unit in support of the movement advocated, are not more emphatic than other men of equal patriotism and wisdom, the learned writers of the letters to which I now refer.
The letters received are singularly interesting, and are characterised by remarkable unanimity, especially on one essential point, the advantages to result from a properly established Intelligence Department. There is not in the more than a hundred responses a single expression adverse to the proposal. I append extracts from the letters received from such of the gentlemen as are not actively engaged in Dominion politics. There are many letters from other gentlemen equally favourable to the movement, including nine Ministers, ex-Ministers, and Members of the Canadian Privy Council, which I would gladly append, but, for obvious reasons, I refrain from doing so. Those now submitted I have classified and arranged in four groups, A., B., C., and D., comprising statesmen, judges, scholars, and divines :-
GROUP A.
Statesmen and Students of Political Science.
1. His Honour Sir Henri G. Joly de Lotbiniere,
Lieut.-Governor of British Columbia
2. His Honour Alfred G. Jones, Lieut.-Governor of
Nova Scotia
3. His Honour Wm. Mortimer Clarke, Lieut.-
Governor of Ontario
4. H. A. Brault, Esq., President de la Chambre de
Commerce du district de Montreal
5. Dean Bovey, McGill University
6. Lieut.-Colonel Denison
-
7. Hon. Sir Win. Howland, P.C.
8. George Garneau, Esq.
9. Very Reverend Monsignor LaFlamme, Laval
University
10. Sir William C. MacDonald
Il. Professor Adam Short, Chair Political Economy,
Queen's University
12. Benjamin Sulte, Esq., Historian and ex-President
Royal Society of Canada
13. Hon. Sir Robert Thorburn, Newfoundland - 14. Sir William Whiteway, Newfoundland
GROUP B.
-
Victoria.
Halifax.
Toronto,
Montreal.
Montreal. Toronto.
Toronto.
Quebec.
-
Quebec. Montreal.
Kingston..
Ottawa. St. John. St. John.
Each Name in this Group represents the Bench.
1. Chancellor Hon. Sir John Boyd
2. Hon. Mr. Justice Fraser, Supreme Court N.S.
3. Hon. Mr. Justice Hall
4. Hon. Mr. Justice Hannington, Supreme Court, N.B. 5. Hon. Mr. Justice Hodgins
6. Hon. Mr. Justice Johnson, Newfoundland
7. Hon. Mr. Justice Meagher, Supreme Court, N.S.
8. Hon. Mr. Justice Russell, Supreme Court, N.S.
9. Hon. Chief Justice Sullivan, Supreme Court,
P.E.I. -
Toronto. New Glasgow. Montreal. Dorchester. Toronto.
St. Johns. Halifax. Halifax.
Charlottetown.
10. Hon. Mr. Justice Wetmore, Supreme Court, Sask. Moosomin.
11. Hon. Mr. Justice Landry, Supreme Court, N.B. -
E 43018.