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world-girdling line of State-owned telegraphs may readily be realised, with the following results :--

1. It would for ever settle the dispute which has arisen, and remove the

possibility of any further friction of a like kind.

2. It would reduce rates on telegraph messages between Australia and England to half, and eventually to less than half the present charges.

3. It would play a most important part in the maintenance of the com-

mercial, social, and political relations of the whole British people.

4. It would provide a double means of telegraphing, that is to say, easterly as well as westerly by a national line, at low uniform charges, between any one British State and all the other self- governing States.

5. It would be a most effective medium for daily communion between all the governmental units of the world-wide Empire, by and through which many questions would be settled as they arise. which, without it, might not be disposed of in months.

6. It would contribute in the most practical manner to the consolidation

of the Empire.

7. It would prove in every sense an important and indispensable factor

in Imperial Unity.

We have, &c.,

To the President, the Fifth Congress

GEORGE T. DENISON, President. GEORGE E. EVANS, Hon. Secretary.

of Chambers of Commerce

of the Empire.

I therefore move the resolution, merely adding that if it be carried, copies should be sent by the Executive with such explanations as may be necessary to every British Government.

Mr. W. F. Cockshutt (Toronto): I have much pleasure, on behalf of the Toronto Board of Trade, in seconding the resolution of my honoured friend from Ottawa. It is unnecessary that I make any remark. He is recognised as the highest authority of Canada in the matter of telegraphs and cables throughout the Empire, and I am safe in concluding that whatever Sir Sandford Fleming recommends in regard to the telegraph and cable system of the Empire, that it is on safe and right lines. (Applause.)

The Acting Chairman: As I have no further names of gentlemen who wish to speak on this resolution, I will now put it to the Congress.

The resolution being put to the Congress, was carried unanimously.

SIR,

General Post Office, London, May 23, 1903. I AM directed by the Postmaster-General to refer to the Memorial of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, dated the 1st instant, advocating the provision of Imperial cables touching only on British territory all round the world.

The Chambers base their resolution on the strategic importance of all British cable communication, and support it by a reference to the recommen- dations of the Cable Communications Committee of 1900.

His Majesty's Government are fully alive to the strategic interests involved in this question, to which they have given careful consideration, but the Chambers appear to be under some misapprehension as to the recommendations of the Committee to which they refer. That Committee stated that: "Public opinion has tended to overrate the importance of 'all- British' routes," and their recommendation on this subject was as follows:- "We think that appreciable but not paramount value must be attached to "all-British' routes, and we regard it as desirable that every important Colony or Naval Base should possess one cable to this country which "touches only on British territory or on the territory of some friendly neutral. We think that after this there should be as many alternative cables as possible, but that these should be allowed to follow the normal routes suggested by commercial considerations."

"

"

At the same time the Committee expressed themselves as decidedly opposed to State ownership of the cables in general, except where special circumstances existed to justify it, as in the case of the Pacific cable.

Now that the Pacific cable has been laid to Australia, and that a line has also been laid from this country to Australia via Madeira, St. Vincent, Ascension, St. Helena, South Africa, Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Cocos, in addition to the cables connecting British possessions which already existed, the conditions laid down by the Committee have been practically fulfilled.

The Committee, as the Chambers of Commerce are no doubt aware, were of opinion that two additional cables might advantageously be laid, namely, from Cocos to Ceylon, to give an alternative line to India, and from Jamaica to St. Lucia, to give "all-British" communication with the latter island, and these recommendations are now under the consideration of His Majesty's Government.

But in view of the facts above stated, the Postmaster-General does not consider it necessary or desirable that the State should undertake at the present time any further large cable extensions.

I am, &c.,

J. C. LAMB.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

General Post Office, London, January 16, 1904.

SIR,

WITH reference to your letter of the 22nd ultimo, transmitting a copy of a resolution adopted at the Fifth Congress of Chambers of Commerce of the Empire, Montreal, on the subject of State-owned telegraphs, I am directed by the Postmaster-General to forward a copy of a reply which was sent by His Lordship's predecessor in May last to the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, who raised a similar question, and I am to say that Lord Stanley concurs in Mr. Austen Chamberlain's views on the subject.

I am, &c.,

H. BABINGTON SMITH.

The Secretary,

London Chamber of Commerce.

Enclosure 3 in No. 1.

PAN-ANGLICAN CABLE SCHEME.

To the Right Honourable AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., His Majesty's Postmaster-General.

The MEMORIAL of the ASSOCIATION of CHAMBERS of COMMERCE of the UNITED KINGDOM, of which the following CHAMBERS of COMMERCE are members :—

Aberdeen,

Arbroath.

Anglo-Belgian.

Barnsley. Barrow-in- Furness.

Bath. Batley. Belfast, Birmingham. Birstal.

E 45018.

Blackburn. Bolton. Bradford. Bristol. Bury.

Dartmouth. Derby. Dewsbury. Dover. Dublin.

Cardiff.

Cheltenham.

Chesterfield.

Cleckheaton

Cork. Croydon.

Fleetwood. Fowey.

Dudley.

Dundee. Dunfermline. Edinburgh. Exeter. Falmouth,

Gloucester. Goole.

Gt. Grimsby. Gt. Yarmouth. Greenock. Halifax. Hartlepools. Heckmondwike. High Wycombe.

HI

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