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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON!

SIR.

12:

No. 36.

INDIAN TRANSIT RATES FOR TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGES

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE.

Downing Street. April 20, 1887.

I AM directed by Secretary Sir H. Holland to state, for the information of the Secretary of State for India, that, at a meeting of the Colonial Conference to-day upon the subject of telegraphic communication, the telegraph rates between Bombay and Madras came under consideration, and I am to state that Sir H. Holland will be much obliged if Viscount Cross will enable him to inform the Conference at their next meeting on this subject what are the reasons which render it necessary that messages between England and Australia should be charged from Bombay to Madras 75 centimes per word, while Indian messages are charged only 22 centimes for the same distance. or 45 centimes if the message is urgent.

Sir Henry Holland would be glad if he could be favoured with an early answer as to the reasons for these differential rates, for the subject will be brought forward again in a very few days.

The Under Secretary of State,

SIR.

India Office,

I am, &c. (Signed)

JOHN BRAMSTON.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE,

India Office, Whitehall, S.W.. April 21. 1887.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India to acknowledge receipt of Mr. E. Wingfield's letter of yesterday's date, asking for information on the subject of Indian transit rates for telegraphic messages to Australia from this country, in view to its being communicated to the Colonial Conference. which is now being held.

In reply, I am directed by Viscount Cross to transmit copy of a despatch* received from the Government of India. in the early part of last year, which sets forth clearly their views on this subject.

The Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office.

I have, &c.

(Signed) JOHN E. GORST.

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA.-PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT, TELEGRAPH.

To the Right Hon. LORD RANDOLPH CHURCHILL, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

MY LORD,

Fort William, February 2, 1886.

We have received the communications noted on the margin ou the subject of Despatch No. 26 T. of 29th October 1885.

the Indian transit rate on telegraphic traffic Telegram, dated 28th November 1885.

with countries east of India, and before Despatch No. 28 T. of 26th November 1885. explaining in detail the reasons that have led Telegram, dated 15th December 1885. Despatch No. 30 T. of 17th December 1885.

us to reject the demands for reduction, we recapitulation of the circumstances of the case before your Lordship.

have the honour to lay the following brief

2. The Eastern Extension Company has the monopoly of the cable routes in the Eastern seas; the Governments of Australia are entirely dependent on the Company's lines for their external telegraphic communications, and the company's cable to Australia was laid under an agreement with the Australian Governments under which the company receives a large subsidy; to this subsidy, two of the Australian Governments (Queensland and New Zealand) have, we understand, refused to contribute, and, under the terms of the agreement, the company is, we believe, debarred from giving the benefits of any reduction that may be made to States

* Dated 2nd February 1886.

Administration--

Eastern Telegraph Company-Eng-

Jan to Bombay

-

Rate per wonl. Franes.

3:50 *75

121

which do not contribute towards the subsidy. The tariff on messages between England and Australia is

very high. so high as to be almost prohibitive. and the main cause of this, as will be seen from the figures noted on the margin, is the high rate charged by the Eastern Ex- tension Company for the share of the work it performs. The Australian Governments are now endeavouring to procure a reduction in the Eastern Extension Company's rates, and the Company has admitted that a reduction of 28. (more than three times the entire amount of the Indian share) might fairly be made;

Indian Government transit rate Eastern Extension Company-India Port Darwin, including Aus- dan terminal rate

Total

5.65

12.90

bat notwithstanding this admission, and the probability that in view to sharing in the rediction when made, both Queensland and New Zealand would consent to subsidise, the Company refuses to make any reduction at all unless the Indian Government responds by making a proportionate reduction in its share.

The Australian Governments having made a bad bargain with the Company are not in a position to secure fair treatment for themselves except on the Company's terms. The Company having other ends to serve insist, as a part of their terms, that pressuro shall be brought to bear on the Indian Government. The views of the Company are not brought out in the correspondence forwarded by your Lordship, but they are frankly stated by the Chairman (Mr. Pender) in his address to the shareholders on the 19th November last to be the appropriation by the Company of the entire Indian transit earnings, out of which a portion is to be given to the Australian Governments in recognition of their aid in bringing pressure to bear on us; the Indian Government is to he relieved of the cost of maintaining and working the short route from Bombay to Madras (830 miles), but maintenance of the long route from Bombay to Rangoon (2,516 miles) is apparently to be left to us with the revenue from such fraction of the traffic as the Eastern Extension ('ompany may find itself unable to divert to the southern route.

4. The question that we have before us is reduced to this-how far should we be justified in risking the interests of this country in order to extricate the Australian Governments from their dilemma, and to secure for them an advantage for which they have no claim on this country, but to which they are certainly in equity entitled, We need hardly add that if we could meet the wishes of the Australian Governments without sacrificing the just right and claims of this country, we should willingly and readily do so.

5. The shape in which the demand was originally put forward was a request for the introduction of a differential tariff, the transit rate to be reduced for the short route between Bombay and Madras, and the rate for the long route between Bombay and Rangoon to be proportionately enhanced. The advantages of a uniform tariff in simplicity and convenience have been consistently maintained by us from the first ; and in 1876, when the Rangoon-Penang cable was laid, and the alternative route completed by the preparation of the Bombay-Rangoon section as an international line, we offered, in order to secure these advantages, to accept 75 centimes as the uniform rate instead of 1 franc which we might have fairly claimed. Our views on this point have steadily gained ground in other countries, and from the report by our delegates on the recent Conference at Berlin, we learn (para. 12) that uniformity of transit rates will in future be the rule in Europe. It would under any circumstances have required very convincing reasons to induce us to depart from a principle which, after we have consistently advocated it for many years, has at last been generally recognised; but in the present case there are special reasons why the general principle should not be departed from.

6. The route via Rangoon was adopted at the instance of the Company, and to meet the Company's wishes. The failures of their Madras-Penang cable had rendered it a matter of vital importance to provide an alternative line; the natural course would have been to have laid a duplicate cable from Madras to Penang, but in adopting the route via Rangoon instead, the Company shortened their route by 600 miles and saved the cost of that length of cable, while the length in India was increased from 830 miles to 2.516 miles; and the proportions were altered from $30 miles in Indian territory and 4,000 miles of cable beyond, to 2,516 miles in Indian territory and 3,400 beyond.

A

51431.

* Published in the Electrician of 13th November 1885, pages 19 and 20.

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