27
506
$ 48.
stations as units, in accordance with modern wireless science, in order to secure the necessary correlation of all the constituent factors. would presumably be no longer required when the stations were completed. This Commission We propose that the construction of the stations to the plans furnished by the Commission should be entrusted to the Engineering Department of the Post Office, which possesses the organisation and experience necessary to the satisfactory execution of this work, and to the corresponding overseas authorities.
We have examined, as requested, the proposals submitted to the Govern- ment by the Marconi Company. We find these too vague to admit of $$ 25-29. detailed comment, but so far as we can judge the scheme, it appears to be of a scope and magnitude so great, and involving such heavy capital and annual expense, that even if it carried the whole of the traffic handled to-day by all the cable companies serving the same regions, it could only be remunera- tive, if at all, by duplicating the Postmaster-General's system of inland and continental telegraphy, and by competing with the State telegraph systems of the various overseas Governments. We are further of opinion that if fully carried out it would be prejudicial to the interests of free wireless research and independent development.
$ 30.
§ 82.
§ 31.
Upon the technical side of the proposals the information given affords no basis for judgment, but we do not accept the statement that an Imperial service can be satisfactorily carried out only by the use of a particular patent owned by the Company.
On the other hand, we are of opinion that if Imperial wireless traffic were carried by the State, long-distance wireless traffic with foreign countries might properly be left, under suitable conditions, to the commercial companies. Both services would profit by this healthy competition.
The considerations and arguments upon which the above conclusions are based will be found set forth in detail in this Report, the chief Sections in which they occur being indicated by the marginal references here placed opposite the different topics.
We recommend:-
RECOMMENDATIONS.
1. That a scheme of Imperial wireless communications be established con- necting the communities of the Empire by geographical steps of about 2,000 miles each, as indicated on the accompanying map.
2. That the wireless system employed be that involving the generation of radio- telegraphic energy by thermionic valves.
3. That the service of communication between Leafield and Cairo by Poulsen arcs, shortly to be in operation by the Post Office, be the first link in the chain of communication with the British communities in Africa, and that this communication be continued by a valve station near Nairobi, in East Africa, and by the alteration of the ex-German station at Windhuk to a valve station, to complete the connection with the Union of South Africa,
4. That for communication with India, the Far East, and Australia, valve stations be erected in England, near Cairo, at Poona (or other Indian station), at Singapore, at Hong Kong, and in Australia at Port Darwin or Perth,
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