The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-09 00:00:00

SOLICITORS.

Messrs. Bircham, Dalrymple, Drake, Bircham, and Burt
46, Parliament-street, S.W.
Messrs. Baxter, Rose, Norton, and Co., 6, Victoria
streot, Westminster, S.W.

BROKERS.

Messrs. P. Cazeuove and Co., 52, Threadneedle-street, E.G.
Messrs. Foster and Braithwaite, 27, Austinfriars, E.C.

SECRETARY (ad interim)—doli C. Deane, Esq.

Temporary Office's-2G, Old-Broad-street, London E.O.
The object of this Company is to establish, under one
control and management iu London, a direct and
thoroughly effective line of telegraph, via Egypt and
Aden, to India, with extensions hereafter to Singapore,
China, Japan, and Australia. The route of the proposed
line (which is shown on plans, to be obtained at the offices
of the Company) is the route by which all the mails,
passengers, troops, and overland merchandise between
this country and the East, are forwarded.
The present condition of telegraphic communication
with India is most unsatisfactory. Commercial messages
usu 'By occupy many days in their transmission, and
arrive not only in a mutilated, and frequently un-
intelligible, form, but also without regard to priority of
date, thereby misleading those who place any reliance
upon them. Prom the many countries, differing in
language and administration, through which the messages.
pass, it is impossible to obtain either explanation or re-
dress ; while the cost, distance, and delays are too great
to admit of corrections being obtained by repetition.
The necessity for a thorough change of the existing
system has been repeatedly urged by the several Chambers
of Commerce in India, and is universally felt in this coun-
try. The establishment of the direct telegraphic route to
India, by way of Aden, as proposed by this Company,
forms one of the most important recommendations of the
recent Parliamentary committee on East India communi,...a,.
Cons.

Under a well-organised system the average time of
transmission of a message between London and Bombay
ought not to exceed six hours. In order to effect this, and
to secure uninterrupted communication between England,
Egypt, Aden, and India, provisional arrangements have
been made for the transfer to this Company, when the line
b3tween Egypt and Bombay is completed, or earlier if this
Contnany desire, of
1. A concession from the Italian Government for the
exclusive use, for 41 years, of a line of telegraph from
Susa (where the French lines terminate) to Modica, in
Sicily, to bo worked by English clerks appointed by Ls
Company.
- 2. The agreement for a lease from the Briti,h Govern-
ment of the existing Malta and Alexand• ia cable for the
term of 42 years from May, 1865.
3. Tho agreement for a lease for 21 years (with the op-
tion of purchase) of the existing land lines of the telegraph
to India Cowpony, between Alexandria, Cairo, and Suez,
together with the concessions and firmans held by that
Company for establishing telegraphs from Egypt to Aden
and India.

Between Modica and Malta the messages will, for the
present, pass by the short lino of the Mediterranean Ex-
tension Telegraph Company; but the Italian Government
have granted a concession which will be vested in this
Company for continuing their independent line from Sicily
by a submarine cable direct to Tripoli, or other point ou
the African coast, and it is proposed to exercise this right
at an early period in order to secure a second route (avail-
able in the event of interruption on the, existing lines) be-
tween Sicily and Alexandria.
The direct routo front London to Suez will, it is antici-
pated, bo in actual work during the present year, and the
Company have entered into a contract with the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company for making and
laying a thoroughly efficient line of telegraph (about 3,650
nautical miles in length) from Suez to Bombay, including
station buildings, instruments, and all expenses, for the
sum of £1,100,000, of which £lOO,OOO is to be retained by
this Company until the successful completion of the whole
of the work; £95,000 of the contract sum is to be paid in
shares of this Company, and £95,000 in debentures. The
contract provides for the completion of the entire line from
Suez to Bombay, in working order, to the satisfaction of
this Company's engineers. The entire line to be completed
in the course of next year, or at latest in the May follow-
ing:. •

itt will be seen, therefore that except through Franco
and over the short lino of 60 miles from Modica to Malta
(which, however, is worked by English clerks), this Com-
pany will have under their own management, and worked
exclusively by an English staff, the whole line of telegraph
from England to Bombay, an advantage the possession of
which will tend greatly to insure a rapid and accurate
transmission of messages.
It is scarcely necessary to remark upon the vast com-
mercial as well as national importance of this undertaking.
The number of messages transmitted between England
and India by the present slow and uncertain route, via the
Persian Gulf, with all the objections and uncertainties at-
tending it, was last year over 30,000, with an average of
30 words per message ; and the Directors of this Company
aro assured by India merchants and other competent judges
that with a direct and reliable route worked 1:43 now pro-
posed the number of messages by the new line will at once
be treble those now sent.
The cost of acquiring the lines from Susa to Modica and
Malta to Alexandria will be £lOO,OOO, payable in cash or
shares, plus any necessary expenditure or liability incurred
with the sanction of this Company.
The rent payable under the lease from the Telegraph to
India Company will be £1,500 per annum, to be increased
to £5,000 on completion of this Company's line to India, the
higher rent being payable only whilst the submarine line is
in work. Tho Company have the option of redeeming this
rent and of purchasing the whole property of the lessors
for £50,000 in cash, or shares, at the choice of the pur-
chasers.
The return from tho Company's lines when completed
to Bombay is estimated upon the basis of the present
charge of £5 ls. per message of twenty
words from London
to Bombay, as follows :
ANNUAL RECEIPTS.
Proportion due to the lines between Susa and
Alexandria in respect of traffic between Eng-
land and Egypt (the actual average of the re-
ceipts on the Malta and Suez lines for the last
four years)
•• £58,550
Proportion due to the lines between Susa and
Bombay (6,307 miles) in respect of traffic
between England and India—estimated at 100
messages per day each way, averaging 30
words each
446,210

Gross receipts ..................... £504,760

ANNUAL EXPENSES.
Rent to English Government for Malta
and Alexandria Line £15,000
Ditto to Telegraph to India Company
(maximum amount)
Special Reserve Fund for maintenance
(including outlay on Malta and
Alexandria Line as provided by tho

lease) of the whole or the Company's
Lines, as hereafter explained, say 125,000
Working expenses 30,000

Net revenue per annum £329,760
This revenue will yield a dividend exceeding £25 per
cont. per annum upon £1,300,000, which it is anticipated
will cover all thevporations of the Company now proposed
between England and Bombay.
As evidence of this being a reasonable estimate, there is
the fact that the receipts for messages between this coun-
try and America by the Atlantic Cable were, for the first
six months of its working, at the rate of £291,000 per an-
num, and that now, at the end of nine months only, those
receipts are at the rate of £430,000 per annum ; and it is
beyond question that the mercantile transactions between
Great Britain, India, China, and Australia exceed in mag-
nitude and value those between this country and America.
The extension of telegraphic communication throughout
the East will unquestional.ly developo additional tratlic in
proportion to the facilities afforded, and the Company's
lines will possess abundant capacity for earning a larger
profit at greatly reduced charges.
It is proposed immediately upon the completion of the
cable to Bombay to establish laud wires along the line of
railway from thence to Calcutta. 11083 wires are esti-
mated to cost not exceeding £lOO,OOO, and the additional
revenue derivable therefrom is calculated at 125,000 to
£30,000 per annum.
Entire identity of interest between this Company and
the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company,
both as respects the manufacture and laying of the now
Cable and the future workinc, and commercial success of
the whole line, is established by means of a contract which
has been entered into with the latter Company for the re-
pairing and maintaining by them of all the cables, wires,
stations, and works of this Company, between Susa and
Bombay, as and when the several sections aro opened for
traffic and transferred to this Compary, for -al period of
ten years certain, on equitable and mutually beneficial
terms. For the repayment of the expenses incurred
by the contractors for vessels, cable, materials, and ser-
vices' of officers, engineers; and others provided by
them under this agreement, they rely upon a fund
to be thus formed:— 25 per cent. of the revenue is to