252
Length, 3,174 nautical miles.
Core, Copper strand weighing 661.4 lbs, to the nautical mile. Gutta-percha, 396.8 lbs. to the nautical mile.
Speed (determined by Muirhead's Siphon Recorder, furnished with a vibrator), 390 elementary signals per minute.
This, as far as we can make out, is equal to between 90 and 100 letters per minute; but I ought to add that our technical officers have made private enquiry, and they are given to understand that the actual »peed falls below this. It is not easy to break through the reticence of the people concerned.
No. 17.
Yours sincerely,
J. C. LAMB.
THE PACIFIC CABLE COMMITTEE to MR. CARSON (ANGLO - AMERICAN TELEGRAPH Co.) and MR. UNDERDOWN (DIRECT United States Cable Co.),
DEAR SIR,
I BEG to
of the 16th. tione:-
[Answered by No. 21.]
Downing Street, January 31, 1900, acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 23rd inst., replying to mine refer to
letter of the 16th inst, and to add the following observa-
my
* Your letter to this office of the 21st of August last stated that the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, Limited, was prepared to provide an all-Canadian land line connection, sufficient for the Pacific Cable traffic. between Sydney (Cape Breton) and Montreal; and that the three land lines to form the proposed connection are all under the_control and operation of the Great North-Western Telegraph Company which is a Canadian Corporation.
•
Your letter of the 9th of May last§ to this Department stated that, if the “A|F British character of the Pacific route is to be maintained, the traffic should follow the route of the Great North-Western Line through Canada.
I am to observe that, according to information given to the Pacific Cable Committee, the three land lines in question is lensed to and worked by portion, if not the whole of
that route the Western Union Telegraph Company.
a
If it is the fact that the
The Committee, as at present advised, consider themselves precluded from adopting any route which is not both owned and worked by a British Company,
three lines offered by your Company do
not fulfil this route referred to by you does condition, I am to enquire whether you would be prepared to enter into an arrangement with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, under which your messages from this side would be handed over to that Company at
Sydney, subject to their making arrangements to transmit, vià Montreal to Vancouver, without at any point leaving British territory.
The arrangements which are made as to the transmission of telegrams from this side across the American continent, would no doubt apply as far as possible to the transmission. of telegrams from Australasia.
Halifax,
25
1. That when the Pacific Cable is completed, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company will be in a position to transmit messages to and from Vancouver, from and to the Atlantic termini, in Canada, of the different Cable Companies, over British lines, under British control and management, and on British territory throughout.
2. That no other existing telegraph Company can fulfil similar conditions, for, with the exception of the telegraph lines of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, every mile of commercial telegraph in Canada is owned or controlled by the Western Union Telegraph Company, which is an American corporation.
3. That the immediate Atlantic Cable connection of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company is with a Company, the capital of which, as well as its Directorate, is largely British; that that Cable Company carries on its operations in the Dominion under a Canadian (and consequently British) Act of Parliament; and that the operators thereof employed on the lines over which such messages will pass may readily be restricted wholly to British subjects. Indeed this is practically the case at present.
4. That while the Canadian Pacific Railway Company will thus be in a position to hand over telegraph messages to any of the Cable Companies having termini in Canada, they assume that it is not intended that they should give any formal undertaking, at the present time, in regard to any particular Company or Companies. Such a decision would necessarily involve the prior discussion and consideration of the policy proposed by the various Cable Companies in regard to the business they might be in a position to control, and no information on this important branch of the matter has yet been forthcoming.
I have, &c.,
HARRY MOODY,
5359.
No. 19.
Deputy Secretary.
MR. CHAMBERLAIN to GOVERNOR EARL BEAUCHAMP (NEW SOUTH WALES) Į
and LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR SIR J. MADDEN (VICTORIA).
yesterday :-
(Sent 3.15 p.m., February 24, 1900.)
TELEGRAM.
FOLLOWING text of unanimous resolution passed by Pacific Cable Committee Begins: "That this Committee would urge that no concessions should be made by any of the Australian Governments to the Eastern Telegraph Company
as a condition of laying a cable between Africa and Australia until this Committee has had an opportunity of considering and reporting on the effect of such concessions upon the financial prospects of the Pacific Cable Scheme."-Ends,
Under existing circumstances, I concur, and hope your Ministers have not yet communicated to Eastern Telegraph Company decision arrived at by Conference. Question in Parliament, 27th February, asking whether concessions have been granted.
I am, &c.,
W. H. MERCER,
No. 20.
SIR,
No. 18.
CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY CO. to Mr. MERCER.
1, Queen Victoria Street, E.C.
London, February 16, 1900. REFERRING to your letter of the 16th January, and my acknowledgment thereof on the 17th of that month,|| I now am instructed by the President of this Company to
state :--
4
• To Mr. Carson only.
† To Mr. Underdown only.
See No. 45 in [Cd. 46].
§ Incorrect reference; the letter was dated 13th May and was addressed to the Treasury. See No. 4 in Cd. 46.
Nos. 10 and 15.
MESSRS. CLARK, FORDE, & TAYLOR to the PACIFIC CABLE COMMITTEE,
4, Great Winchester Street, London, E.C., DEAR SIR,
March 13, 1900. PACIFIC CABLE.
In accordance with your verbal instructions of yesterday I have made an amended estimate for the above cable.
It is based on Messrs. Clarke, Forde & Taylor's estimate, dated 16th January, 1900, and I have adopted the core recommended by my firm for the section between Vancouver
600 lbs. copper
220 lbs. copper and Fanning Island, viz. :--
340
; gutta percha
180
also a core of
for the Fanning Island-Fiji section, by which alteration the cost of the manufacture and "` gutta percha laying is increased by £6,542, viz. :—from £1,439,117 to £1,445,659,
4452
D
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
LICO.885
7
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC, COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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