The San Francisco call., 1904-06-15
SUBMARINE CABLES
IN PRIVATE HANDS
Governments Own but 3S,797 of the
252,4S6 Miles Stretching Under
the Ocean.

Denmark has more prominent place
among countries whose capitalists have
engaged in laying ocean cables than
might be expected from her inferior
commercial Importance She ranks
fourth on the list, even surprising Ger
many.
The reason is that the Great North
ern Telegraph Company, with it's Of
fees at Copenhagen, laid and operates
one Of the most important systems in
the Orient-that which connects Vlad-
ivostok with Nagasaki, Shanghai and
Hongkong.
There are in operation to-day 252,-
436 miles of ocean cables, of which only
38,797 miles, or about 10 per cent, are
owned by Governments, the remainder
being in the hands of private owners.
Englishmen opened the first cable
line-across the narrow channel be-
tween Dover and Calais, on August %,
1S50-and the Englishmen still control
a larger mileage than the capitalists
of any other country, and more than
half the total of the submarine lines.
The British cables which connect
London with all parts of the world
have a length of 154,099 miles, Of which
1853 are owned by the Government.
OF the 1S9,136 miles owned by private
companies, the largest mileage is in
the Australian and Oriental lines. The
Eastern Extension, Australia and
China Telegraph Company controls 2I,-
609 miles and the Western Telegraph
, Company 1880 miles.
The most important of the British
cable lines are the five that stretch
across the North Atlantic. and also the
first line stretched across the Pacitic
which connects Vancouver with the
Fiji Islands, Norfolk Island, Queens
land and New Zealand, and which was
opened on December 9, 1903. Among
the many British lines also are cables
to South America and along both OF its
coasts.
Our country is second on the list with
A. 470 miles of cable, nearly all In pri-
vate hands, the Government control
ling only a short mileage in Alaskan
waters. The most important are the
five lines across the Atlantic and the
second great Pacific cable. completed
on July 25 1903. by the Commercial Pa
cific Gable Company. between San
Francisco, Honolulu, Midway Island,
Guam and the Philippines. Another
great line laid down by American cap
italists is that on the Pacific Coast
between the Isthmus of Tehuantepec
and Valparaiso, Chile.
France has the third place with a
total length of 24010 miles, Of which
10092 are the property of the state.
The most important or the submarine
connections of France are the two lines
which connect Brest with the United
, States.
AS already mentioned. Denmark is
fourth on the list with 94sS miles. Ger
manys lags behind with 1928 miles Of
cable, of which more than one-third is
owned by the Government. It's most
important cable service is that between
the Island of Borkum, Fayal and New
York City.
The seventeen other countries which
take financial interest in cables have
altogether only 11.131 miles of lines,
nearly all of them owned by the va
rious Governments.
The country which figures TO the
smallest extent in this list is Bulgaria,
with an ocean cable about three
fourths Of mile long. Roumania beats
her neighbor with a cable four and
one-third miles long.-New York Sun.