CO129-539-13 Proposed transfer of Government Wireless Service to Imperial and International Communications Ltd. 11-4-1932 - 17-6-1933 — Page 44

28

not be debarred from making developments in their Communications

services which would be of commercial interest to the Colony,

provided such facilities were not otherwise obtaimble.

MR. VERNON said it could be pointed out that it was the settled

policy of the Colonial Office not to authorise the development of

services which would be in direct competition with the Company and

that the Governments or Malaya and Hong Kong shalabe instructed to

bear in mind that they may be asked at some future date to transfer

all their services to the Company including the developments which

they have made.

SIR PHILIP CUNLIFFE LISTER, referring to the recommendation of the

Imperial and Wireless Conference of 1928, suggested that instructions

to the Colonies could be based on this idea but it required

amplification. He asked what the specific requirements of Hong Kong

were.

MR. VERNON, in reply, stated that the Committee were not in

possession of the detailed requirements of Hong Kong, and though

Hong Kong had been asked to specify what improvement in services they

required, the reply had not been entirely satisfactory.

AIR COMMODORE WARRINGTON-MORRIS suggested that the Colonies might

be informed that they could develop such telephonic services as they

desired, but that any point-to-point W/T services should be referred for

approval.

SIR PHILIP CUNLIFFE LISTER suggested that the Colonial Office,

in consultation with the Treasury, should prepare a despatch to be

forwarded to the Governors of Hong Kong and Malaya, on the lines he had

indicated. The Colonies should not be precluded from developing

services which would be not in competition with the existing

facilities, but there must be no question of cutting in for the

sake of cutting in. As regards the W/T service to Japan, this

would be indefensible, as the existing cable facilities were adequate

16.