CO129-147 - Public Offices - 1870 — Page 189

Viscount Monck to Earl Granville.

British Australian Telegraph Company, Limited,

100, Palmerston Buildings, Broad Street, London, E.C.,

26th January, 1870.

My Lord,

I HAVE the honor to lay before your Lordship the prospectus of the British Australian Telegraph Company.

The Company has been formed for the purpose of connecting Singapore, Java, and Australia with the line of telegraphic communication between England and Singapore, to be provided by the Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta, the Malta and Alexandria, the British Indian, and British Indian Extension Cables.

For the project which has been undertaken by the Company, the whole of the capital has been subscribed, and a contract concluded with the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company for cables to connect Singapore and Java, and Java with Port Darwin in Australia, and for land lines thence to Burketown.

The order for the cables has been given, and the first instalment of sixty thousand pounds has been paid.

I cannot doubt that the project now submitted will receive the same countenance and support that your Lordship has already afforded to the associated undertakings for connecting Ceylon with Singapore and China.

I venture, therefore, on behalf of the Company, to ask the permission of Her Majesty's Government to land the cables, and to acquire suitable accommodation at Singapore and Port Darwin, with permission to erect land lines between Port Darwin and Burketown, and furthermore that possible facility may be afforded to the Company in conducting its operations.

every The Company will be prepared to make due provisions for the punctual transmission of messages on Her Majesty's Service, and to observe the conditions usually imposed, as far as they are compatible with the obligations rendered necessary by our international position in connecting British with Dutch Possessions.

I have, &c.

(Signed) MONCK,

Chairman of the Board of Directors.

The Right Hon". Earl Granville, K.G.

&c.

te.

&c.

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