CO129-386 - Public Offices & Others - 1911 — Page 301

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be such legislation but that there would be no serious difficulty in taking the necessary power by legislation in Cyprus and Singapore). It may be noted that no mention was made of the further point which is not free from difficulty, namely, whether the use of a patent is permitted by the English Act when the pur- poses are not governmental in the strict sense of the

07 word as being on business with the Government but are really a commercial purpose carried on by a Government instrumentality.

The Admiralty stated that the cost of erecting a station was estimated at £40,000 not including the site and it was agreed that £70,000 ought to be an excessive sum. The Post Office stated that in their opinion a royalty was desirable as it would induce the Marconi Company to improve the system and to communi- cate the improvements to the Government and the Admiralty considered that a lump sum of £100,000 might be a reasonable sun to pay to the Company. Mr. Samuel pointed out that the terms of erection would be the

better the more stations there were to erect and he

accordingly asked the Colonial Office representative to ascertain definitely whether the Colonial Office would be prepared to erect a station at Hong Kong (presumably at the expense of Hong Kong) or that

tenders should be invited for seven stations certainly

or probably.

The question was considered whether any other Company than the Marconi Company could be invited to tender and the Post Office and Admiralty felt that

there