ENG-1955 — Page 219

168

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

ment Committee, and the Radio Licensing and Inspection Office, on all matters affecting the Colony's internal and external telecommunications.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Cable and Wireless Ltd. is responsible for all telegraph and radio-telephone services between Hong Kong and over- seas, for telegraph and radio-telephone services with ships at sea, and for a VHF service with ships anchored in the Port of Victoria. The Company provides a service for internal telegrams throughout the Colony, and is responsible for the technical maintenance and development of the Colony's broadcasting and Aeradio services, meteorological radio services, and the VHF communications of various Govern- ment Departments.

During the year new radio-telegraph services with Laos, Cambodia and Japan were opened. Channelling facilities, involving new techniques, have been installed on the Singa- pore and Tokyo routes, making additional circuits available for leasing to commercial firms. On the Peak, new multi- channel radio-telephone equipment has been put into service on the Canton circuit.

The telegraphic communications of the Colony are well served by several deep-sea cables linked to the Company's worldwide network of 150,000 miles of submarine cables, and by their 14 direct high-speed wireless telegraph circuits, working with other centres in the Far East and beyond. The service was improved by laying a second high-speed cable connecting Hong Kong with Manila.

The overseas radio-telephone services, worked in col- laboration with the Hong Kong Telephone Company, expanded. New services were opened to the Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Czechoslovakia and Poland, thus extending the telephone service from Hong Kong to fifty countries. Relay services were opened between Macau and Chile, Hawaii and Mexico. The existing telephone services to Bandung and Seoul were extended by two hours daily, and an additional channel was made available to Tokyo.

The Company's radio facsimile service, already avail- able to and from Singapore and London, has been extended to include Japan and San Francisco, and a service to Manila is contemplated.