Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-02-25
A GREAT CABLE.

Sir Sanford Fleming of Ottawa recently
addressed a letter, which has just been
made public, to Hon. Joseph
lain on the subject of a state-oWned sys-
tenn of electric cables for the British en-
pirc, to circle the earth.
The Pacific cable, he says, would serve
the purpose of trade between Australasia
and Canada, but these countries are de-
barred from establishing Geographic con-
nection with Hong Kong by an agreement
with the Eastern Extension Telegraph
excluding Canada and the
southern colonies from that port. Sir an
ford admits that the proposal for the
establishment of a Pacific cable would
undoubtedly interfere with the rich mo-
nopoly of the Eastern Extension COM
pany, but he holds that no private COM
pany should be allowed to stand in the
way when great imperial interests are at
stake.
He lays it down as essential to the inn
perial cable service that none of the lines
should touch foreign soil, and that they
shall be placed so as to avoid shallow
seas, more especially those seas in prox-
unity to any country likely at any time
to prove unfriendly. H" thus described
the imperial Geographic circuit of the
globe: Commencing at Vancouver, the
cable would cross the Pacific to New
Zealand and Australia; from Australia
+ the main line would cross the Indian
ocean to South Africa; from South At
RIGA it would traverse the Atlantic to
Canada, where it would connect with the
transatlantic lines. Such a system would
constitute a base for connecting every one
of her majesty's possessions and naval
coaling stations Gibraltar and Malta eX-
cepted) by the most perfect means Of
conveying intelligence at disposal.
The cable from Vancouver would first
find a midocean station at Tanning ISL
an5 a second at Hi islands a third at
Norfolk island; at Norfolk island it would
bifurcate, one branch extending to New
Zealand, the other to the eastern coast of
Australia, from King Georges sound, Or
other point in Western Australia, the ca
BILE would extend to Cocos island, thence
to Mauritius, and thence to Natal and
Cape Town, as may be found expedient.
Cocos would become an important tele-
graphic center, and it would be a con-
venient point for connecting Singapore
by a branch cable. Singapore is already
in connection with Hong Kong by an all
British cable via Labuan, and her majes-
tvs government can take possession by
giving a II months notice to the Eastern
Extension company. India could be
i reached by a branch from Cocos to Co.
lombo or Trincomalee, in Ceylon. At
MauritiuS a connection would be formed
with the existing cable to Seychelles,
Alden and Bombay.
IN Ofdef 10 AVOID the swallow seas along
the west coast of Africa, Spain. Portugal
and France, it is proposed that a cable
! should extend from Cape Town to Ber-
muda, touching at st. Helena, Ascension
and Barbados as midocean stations. At
Bermuda a connection would be formed
with the existing cable to Halifax, and at
that point with the Canadian and trans
Atlantic lines.
Sir Sanford Fleming approximates the
distance which each group of cables
would require to cover as follows: Pacific
ocean, 1850 knots; Indian ocean, 8, 100;
Atlantic ocean,, $500; total, %, $50. He es-
Inmates the cost at between G5, 900, 900 and