CO885-(6-7) — Page 371

183

37

PUBLIC

RECORD

OFFICE

6

Reference :-

C.O. 885

6

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

2 December 1896.

Mr. BENJAMIN TRAILL FFINCH, called in and Examined.

Chairman.

2864. MR. FFINCH, I think you are here on behalf of the India Office ?—Yes.

2865. Would you kindly explain to the Com- mittee your exact position?—I am the Director- in-Chief of the Indo-European Telegraph De- partment of the Government of India; that is, part

have charge of the telegraphs from Karachi, up the Persian Gulf, and through Persia, and also joining the Turkish line at Fao.

2866. And can you speak as to the Indian land lines also-Yes, to a certain extent.

2867. Which Indian land lines are concerned

with the Australian traffic?-More especially the lines from Karachi to Bombay and Bombay to Madras.

2868. Can you tell the Committee what share in Australian messages goes to the Indian tele- graph system?-The Australian messages from America and Europe.

2869. Yea? They all pass through India, either by way of Karachi to Madras or from Bombay to Madras. In 1895-96 the total number of words was 1,914,250,

2870. The tariff for a single word in an ordinary message from London to Australia is 4s. 9d. Yes,

2871. How much of that goes to India?— Decimal thirty-five of a franc. We always cal- culate in francs. The rate in francs from London to Australia is 5'95 francs.

2872. Per word?—Yes, for the Indian land lines the rate is 0:35. That is 3., that goes to India.

2873. Has the Indian Government at any time made any calculation how it would be financially affected by the laying of a cable across the Pacific ?—It would depend, of course, upon the amount of traffic which went by that cable.

2874. Quite so.-If the whole of the traffic of 1895-96 had gone by the Pacific cable, the loss to India on account of the land lines in India would have been 25,0437.; and to the Indo- European system, that is the line from Teheran to Karachi, the loss of that revenue would be 8,5177.

2875. So that we may take it that whatever proportion of the whole trattic the Pacific cable attracted pro tanto these receipts would be diminished?—Yes.

2876. And a loss would accrue to the Indian Government?—Yes.

2877. Do these lines at the present moment pay?The Indian lines?

2878. Yes. Yes.

2879. This traffic pays in the full commercial sense of the word?-Taking the whole of the revenue that the Government obtain from the Indian telegraphs, the interest last year on the capital outlay was 5-43 per cent.

2880. I presume these lines were not built purposely for the purpose of Australian traffic that has been an incidental advantage?—I think

Chairman-continued.

the Government would have put up those lines, but undoubtedly they have extra wires from Bombay to Madras.

2881. If a Pacific cable were made it would

give an alternative route ta India?—Yes.

2882. Do you think that, under any circum- stances, such ne a European war, that would he an advantage ?-At present there are three routes to India, one through Germany and Russia and Persia; another by the Red Sea, what we call the Suez route, or the Eastern

route; and the third through Turkey. The Turkish line at present is in very bad order, but it would not take long to put it in order, and then, of course it would depend which countries the European war affected, whether either the route through Germany and Russia or the route through Turkey was available, besides the Suez

route.

2883. I would put it in this way; do you con- sider it really of any importance to India that India should have an additional route which would be practically all on British territory?—My own personal opinion is, no.

2884. If, from any cause, the rate per word from England to Australia was lowered below the 4s. 9d., would that or would that not, affect the 3d. India now gets?-No; I do not know. India has only two rates; they have a terminal rate, and a transit rate to all countries, either east or west of India, and I am not prepared to say whether the Indian Government would reduce. I presume they would do so in a fair proportion; yes, I think they would, because they have done so before; they would reduce rateably with the other interested administrations. 2885. Would that rest entirely with them?— With the Government of India. yes.

2886. They need not reduce unless they choose to do so-No.

Mr. Murray.

2887. Did they reduce when the through rate was reduced from 9s. 4d. to 4s. 9d. ?They reduced it at the Paris Conference. The rate used to be 74d., when the rate to Australia was

9s. 4d.

2888. And they did reduce it at the same time as the general rate was reduced?—I think not; I think they reduced it at the Paris Conference; I think the rate was reduced beforehand in 1890. The old rate was 74d.

Chairman.

2889. You have given us the amount of traffic that there was last year with Australia as some- thing just under 2,000,000 words ?—Yes.

2890. Were those all paying words?—They are made up, ordinary messages, 1,716,000; press, 158,000; and Government, 39,800.

2891. Those were all paying words, though at

2 December 1896.]

Mr. FFINCH.

Chairman-continued. different rates?-All the words were paid for to the Government of India at 34d., but all the Government words were not paid for to the Eastern Extension Company. That Company receive a subsidy from some of the Australasian Governments, and they carry some of the Govern- ment messages to certain of the Colonies without charge.

2892. What do you consider to be in practical experience the number of letters in a word ?- Eight; seven or eight.

2893. And what would be the average number of words in a message?-Twelve to 13 during 1895-96.

2894. Supposing the average number of lettera in a word to be between seven and eight, and the number of words in a message to be on the aver- age between 12 and 13, how many service words would μου in your working have to send for each message in addition to those 12 or 13 paying we generally allow about

words? I think

five.

2895. And what would they consist of?-The atation from, the date and time, the number of the message and the route, whether it was to go by Suez or Teheran.

2896. How many letters would the signals necessary to give those five indications amount to on the average? -How many signals?

2897. How many letters would the signals used to make these five indications amount to ? -Six or seven, that is the lowest; not letter s words; that is, for instance, suppose the number was No. 1, that would only be a single figure, but it might be No. 456, it might take three figures. The same with regard to the date and the time, it may be one or two figures.

2898. But what I wanted to know was how many letters those five indications would amount to on the average?-Nine or ten.

2899. Say 10 letters would give the informa- tion on all those five points ? Yes, I think, on an average.

2900. Then that does not minount to more thau

a word and a quarter?—No, that is the work that is not paid for.

2901. So that if you take seven to eight letters as the usual average length of a word which is paid for, and taking that as your general standard, when you say you have to add five words to a message in order to give these various indications it does not amount to more than one-and-a-quarter words of what is generally paid for?-No, not of code words; no.

2902. What other use have you to make of the line for the purpose of administration besides the communications incidental to each separate message?— Very little. Of course the morning report, state of working, and the check of the numbers on the day's messages have to be sent, but otherwise it is not very much.

2903. What percentage of the whole work would you say was taken up by administrative usas independently of the indications on each message, 5 per cent. ?-I should say it is less than 5 per cent. Of course, many people make use of the lines a good deal for administrative purposes. For instance, from here I have to telegraph a good deal to Persis and to Karachi

Chairman-continued.

[Continued.

to the Directors there; if I wait for letters to reach Persia I have to wait a mouth; to get a reply to a letter I send I have to wait two months; but I mean it is not absolutely necessary to use the telegraph.

2904. In your answer of 5 per cent., you are making allowance for that?-No, I cannot say I It is less than 5 per cent. that you are bound to use the line for administrative pur- poses.

am.

2905. Less than 5 per cent., which you are bound to do?—Yes.

2906. The rest is a luxury-I do not know that it is a luxury; I think, perhaps, it is neces-

and the say, it depends on where you are, the distance you are from your officers. If your lines are very long you use the telegraph more frequently.

Mr. Murray.

2907. If you had got paying business to put on the line you would probably exclude those messages?-You would not send those messages then; you only send them when the line is clear.

Chairman.

2908. Is through traffic to Australia sent over the Indian lines all through the 24 hours, or how is the work distributed in point of time ?— As soon as the messages are received they are

Bent on.

Australia.

to

2909. And does that go on all through the 24 hours?-No. Telegrams from England arrive in India generally, taking English time, between four and eight or nine o'clock p.m., and then are telegraphed through to Madras and on

The work from Australia, again, arrives in India generally about eight o'clock in the evening, Indian time; that would be about three o'clock English time, and that traffic goes on until about ten o'clock p.m., English time. I reckon that about 15 hours are employed for paid traffic passing over my line.

2910. And if the traffic was to increase

greatly, could you work beyond these 15 hours? -Oh, yes; for instance, when the Eastern lines were interrupted the whole of the work has been thrown on the Teheran line, and, with the exception of two or three hours in the day, it has been carried, with but slight delay, and in the same way when our line, the Teheran line, has been interrupted, the Eastern carried the whole of the traffic perfectly easily.

2911. In the case of these interruptions, how long was the line working? The whole 24

hours.

2912. And were you able to put the business through without delay-With a delay of two or three hours. Sunday comes in, or Saturday, or Monday morning, when there is less work, and then we always used to get clear.

2913. Did the public grumble at this delay of two or three hours?-No.

Sir Donald Smith.

2914. Has the traffic been increasing regularly for some years past from Australia?-For the last few years very considerably, yes.

24