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Nevertheless, for further security, a special cable, as mentioned, was laid in 1898 direct from here to Gibraltar and thence to Malta, at a cost of £806,000, while a land-line across France, over which the bulk of the Indian traffic used to pass to Marseilles, and thence by cable to Malta, was given up. The point, then, which merits attention here is that of the sixteen North Atlantic cables only five are British, and that these British cables have to encounter a severe competition from American, French, and German enterprise, aided in the two latter instances by the funds of the State. The further point, then, which merits attention is that the telegraphic communications between Great Britain and Canada are singularly ample and direct. Great Britain and Africa. From Cocos a cable runs to Australia in one direction, and to South Africa in the other. Consequently, in 1898, at the urgent instance of the guaranteeing Governments, who smarted under their share of the loss, the rate was raised to 4s. 9d. At that point it remained till 1900, when it was reduced to 4fS. At the same time, further future reductions were arranged, subject to the continued receipt of a minimum or standard revenue, as in the case of India and South Africa.

From 1870 to the present time, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunis, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Tripoli, Crete, Cyprus, Turkey, and Russia have allowed British capital and British enterprise to connect them with our system, in complete reliance upon the proved international uprightness and fair dealing of our citizens. Lastly, on a capital outlay of £2,500,000 a return of interest is necessary; otherwise no one would engage in so serious an enterprise. It was at this juncture that a most severe blow was inflicted upon British cable enterprise. That the cable shall be of an agreed efficiency as regards specification, construction, and power of transmitting words. In other words, the Governments of France and Germany have heavily subsidized these cables, in order to provide that their communications with the United States shall be independent of any landing-place within the British Empire. It is by being allowed to collect a portion of that traffic in the United States by the agency of their American connections that our five British cables chiefly maintain their power to live.

But the risks and cost of that enterprise were so serious, and the traffic likely to be obtained so small, that it was found impossible to act without State assistance. The receipts from the traffic between India and Europe and America, which in 1879 had been about £320,000, had risen very slowly up to an average of £352,000 by 1900. In view of the great capital outlay involved in the laying of new cables during that interval, this was not a high return. Hardly had this been done in 1900 than Chefoo became a most important centre, significantly enough, of foreign activities. The agreement for the construction of the latter section provided that the rate to Jamaica from Britain is not to exceed 8s. a word. According to this agreement the gross receipts of the Indian traffic, whether earned by cable or land-line, less outpayments, are paid into a common purse; the sum thus obtained is then divided. The line, which had thus been mostly duplicated for safety, had now to be triplicated to cope with the growth of traffic, and not only triplicated, but quadruplicated, by cables laid in 1888 from Port Said to Aden; in 1887 £rom England via Portugal to Malta; in 1891 from Port Said to Bombay; in 1897 from Vigo in Spain to Gibraltar; in 1898 by a direct cable from England to Gibraltar; and in 1899 from Gibraltar to Alexandria.

At first, in 1870, it was a single line, except that it was duplicated between Malta and Alexandria. This constitutes a line, if we are to omit indirect connections, triplicate in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, but quadruplicate in the Atlantic and Red Sea. The only line, however, which needs our attention is that duplicate sequence of cables, given on the accompanying map, owned by the West India and Panama Company, and running from Jamaica right through our British Islands to Demerara on the South American continent. But if the nation asks what they have done for her, they can say that, annihilating time and space on behalf of her, they have given unity to the disunion of her unfettered peoples, and substance to her dream of an Imperial commonwealth; and that, identifying our own good with the good of others, they have served all nations for the sake of their own.

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