The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-19 00:00:00

RAILWAY BILLS.

Yesterday, in the Duke of Richmond's committee,
the case for the Great Western's additional powers
bill was concluded, but further adjourned until
Friday for the consideration of important clauses;
and the committee proceeded with the hearing of
the East Glocestershire Railway Company's Bill,
which was opened by Mr. Hope Scott, who elicited
in the course of the evidence adduced that the peti-
tion presented against the bill by some hundreds of
the inhabitants of Cheltenham had been signed
under the mistaken impression that it was a peti-
tion in favour of the measure. The committee of
the Commons threw out the bill for the Newport
and Ryde Direct Railway, and the bill of the Isle of
Wight Railway is withdrawn. In Mr. Adair's
committee on the Bristol and Clifton line Mr. Bing-
ham concluded his address in opposition for the
merchants and owners of property at Bristol, and Mr.
F. Slade occupied the remainder of the sitting in
summing up for the promoters. The engineering
evidence of Mr. Fowler and Mr. Bartholomew was
taken on the South Yorkshire, Hull Extension, and
further evidence was adduced on the Ellesmere and
Oswestry liners in that committee.

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH

_INDIA.

The following relates to the question of tele
graphic communication with India, via the Eu.

phrates :

" Sir,—While Russia contemplates in the course
of two or three years placing Europe in telegraphic
communication, through Siberia, with the virgin
shores of the Amoor and the territory recently
annexed to Russia on the sea of Japan and her other
distant possessions on the Pacific Ocean, it is grati-

fying to find that efforts on our part are being
made to supply the missing link in the electric chain
between England and India, and that the route
which is regarded with most favour in India is sub-
stantially the one which you were good enough on
several occasions to allow me to advocate in your
columns ; viz., from Constantinople, through Asia
Minor, by Bagdad, Bussorah, and the Persian Gulf
to Kurrachee.

" On the completion of the line from Constanti-
nople to Bagdad the first design was to continue
telegraphic communication to Kurrachee by means
chiefly of a subaqueous cable by the Tigris, Eu-
phrates, and the Persian Gulf ; the numerous islands
and headlands of the Gulf offering, it was consi-
dered, unusual facilities both for laying and repair-
ing as well as for working the cable. Subsequent
to the failure of telegraphic communication by the
Red Sea, it was proposed to carry the wire by land
from Bagdad through Persia,by Bunder Abbas and
Gwadel, to Kurrachee.

" Major Henry Green, political agent at Khelat,
and Major Malcolm Green, resident at Muscat, and
subsequently Major Goldsmid, Assistant-Commis-
sioner in Scinde, all officers of distinguished ability
and scientific acquirements, were deputed by the
Government, of Bombay to make the necessary
investigation of the coast of Mekran, both as
to the physical character of the country
and the feeling of the de facto independent
chiefs ; while Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart, who
rendered such good service with the telegraph
during the campaigns in India of 1857-1858, was
sent to Teheran to negotiate with the Shah for the
passage of the wire through the skirts of his do-
minions, and, if deemed desirable, for placing, by
means of a branch line, the capital of Persia in
telegraphic intercourse .with the capitals of Europe
and India. The three first-named officers were, it
is believed, well received by the Makernets, and
gave a favourable opinion of the route ; but it is
understood that Persia had become so exorbitant
in her &minds for the little that was requires of

her that a fresh exploration had been deemed ad-
visable. accordingly, the Majors Henry and
Malcolm Green were, with Mr. Walton, of the
telegraph department, again invited to examine the
shores of the Persian Gulf.

" The great objection made to the cable keeping
to the Arabian instead of the Persian side of the
Gulf was the necessity of crossing, by means of a
deep sea cable of considerable length from Muscat
to the Mekran coast.
"In the course of the recent survey it has been
found that the line could be carried safely as far
north as Chobar, instead of Gwadel, as first pro.
posed,
t ie thereby
length
of
the deep saving6o miles, and reducing the
neep sea cable to 170 miles.ere
"Bagdad has now for a considerable period been
in telegraphic communication with Constantinople.
"From Bagdad the line can be carried to Graine,
and thence, by small islands and promontories, to
Ras-el-lihyma, and thence along the level culti-
vated Battinah Coast to Muscat; in this way we
should have our telegraphic communication with
India either in our own bands or in those of friendly
populations. The steady friendship of the Turks to
us is well known, and the wandering Arabs on the
banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the fierce
Beloochees of the Mekran Coast, respect the
English name and appreciate fair and liberal treat-
ment.
" Whatever may be the precise route ultimately
adopted, there appears to be no longer any doubt
that England and India will soon be in daily tele-

" I must say, in common justice to those who
joined me in advocating the line through Asiatic
Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and in predicting the
failure of the Red Sea route, and who went to the
expense of having a company incorporated by
special Act of Parliament after having had their
plans investigated and reported upon by a com-
mittee of the House of Commons, of which Lord
Stanley was chairman, and who have at this mo-
ment a large quantity of telegraph stores at Bagdad,
that, had circumstances admitted of their views
being carried out when first brought forward,
£BOO,OOO of the public would have been saved from
following the golden wheels of Pharoah's chariot,
and we should long ere this have boen enjoying all
the political and commercial advantages of efficient
telegraph communication between England and
India.—l am, &c.,
" June 16. " W. P. ANDREW."