The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

TPE RED SEA TELEGRAPH.

The following letter has been addressed to the
Editor of the Times :
Sir,—l am glad to see that the Times is insisting upon
the paramount importance of establishing electric com-
munication with India without delay; and now that Cap-
tain's Pollen's favourable report of the Red Sea has been
published, there is no ground whatever for hesitating as
to which line is the most feasible. I perceive, neverthe-
less, that Mr. W. P. Andrews still holds for the route
through Asiatic Turkey and the Persian Gulf, but his
arguments in favour of the one and against the other are
for the most part based upon very erroneous data, as I
shall proceed to point out.
With regard to the comparative length of the two
routes, I readily admit that the proposed Persian
Gill hoe is shorter by about 800 miles than that
via the Red Sea—that is, if the di- tance I:tween
Malta and Alexandria is to be considered as form-
leg part of the latter ; for the distance between
Alexandria and Bombay, or Kurrachee, is about equal
to the distance between Constantinople and Surrachee,
supposing (as I understand the present project to cot-
template) that the route from Constantinople as far as
Basra is to follow the Turkish post road. Under these
circumstances it becomes a matter of importance to de.•
termine whether the advantages offered by the Red Sea
are sufficient to overbalance this one obvious considera-
tion in favour of the other route. -

All doubts respectiug the adaptation of the Red Sea
for a submarine telegraph have been set at rest by the
survey of Captain Pullen, and as no difficulties have
ever been suggested in the way of its exten,ion from
Aden, either to Bombay or Kurrachee, the Red Sea
route as regards feasibility is unquestionably as avail-
able as that through Asiatic Turkey.
But against the former Mr. Andrews argues, that
the Arabs on the coast of the Red Sea are the most
lawless of the inhab tants of the Turkish dominiots, and
would have us infer therefrom that the cable, wherever
landed in its course to Aden, would be unsafe. This, is
a great mistake. The Arabs of the interior are, indeed,
lawless enough, quite as much so as the Bedouins, who
inhabit 600 miles of the country through which Mr.
Andrews purposes to carry his telegraph ; and if the
Red Sea scheme involved any such risk I should deem
it as wild as Ido his. But, in fact, the entire inhabited
coast is in the hands of the Turks, who have garrisons
located at al the principal ports and towns from Suez
to Mokha. " The ends of the cable, and the persons in
charge of it" would consequently be as safe at Yanbo,
Jidda'', Loheia, Hodelda, or Mokha, as the wires are
at Ste z, and there is no reason to suppose that the
Porte would offer any objections to a telegraphic Station
at either of those places ; on the contrary, I believe its
consent has already been proffered and obtained.
But it may be found requisite or expedient to avoid
the coast and to occupy some one or more of the islands
between Suez and the Straits of Babel Mandeb ; and this
possibility supplies Mr. Andrews with another objection
against the Red Sea route, as necessitating our taking
"military possession" of those points, and the conse-
quent expense and political embarrassments which such
a course would entail. But all this is pure fancy.
Almost all the available islands are barren and uninha-
bited rocks, and possess no such importance as that
which has been (in a very exaggerated degree) attributed
to and, consequently, there is riot the least
Perim,chanceo
of any obstacle being raised by the Porte to our
occupation of them as simple telegraphic stations. No
garrison would be required for their protection, since the
waters of the Red Sea are as free from piracy as the
River Thames. I have resided in those parts for the last
12 years, and have been tolerably acquainted with the
course of events there, and not one instance of plunder
by sea bas occurred during that period ; and now, more-
over, when no less than ten of our steamers traverse that
route every month, such outrages are placed far beyond
the bounds of probability.
Having thus far disposed of Mr. Andrews' objections,
I proceed to notice his arguments in favour of the line
through Asiatic Turkey to Kurrachee by the Persian
Gulf. That it is shorter by 800 miles I have already
allowed ; but there, I maintain, every shadow of oupe-