The Washington herald., 1920-12-04
CABLECONTROL
MAY ALLEVIATE
|. us. And ALLIES
France, England and Japan
Retaining Lines Seized
From Germany.
SQUARE DEAL DENIED
Washington Observer Sees
Peril to American Ship
ping Interests.
SQUARE DEAL DENIED
By FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

ton with the former German ca
BILE lines All attempts to reach
an amicable settlement at the In
ternational Communications Confer
ence, now winding up its sessions
in Washington, have proved abor-
tive. The United States, /, learn,
has set up demands which the Brit
ish. French and japanese resolutely
refuse
The United States seeks broadly
a restoration OF pre-war services
The cutting and diversion of Ger
man cables during the war by
France, Great Britain and Japan re-
suited in depTiving the United States
of cable facilities vitality important
to American commerce The United
States shows no disposition to let
the penalization of Germany take
a form that at the same time penal
ICES America, which helped to win
the war
U. 8. Demands Square Deal
The United States is not asking
for the German cables herself. nor.
necessarily, for any share in their
ownership. American overtures to
Great Britain and France for q
square deal on the cables are with
an eye single to insuring to Amer
lean commerce and trade that free
and unrestricted service" to Cen
trail and Northern Europe that we
enjoyed before the war.
II the British and French sue
ceed in holding on to the German
cables, which they seized in the
earliest hours of August, 1914, Amer
lean cable traffic to countries like
Holland, Germany, Austria. Hun
gary, Norway, Denmark and Swe-
den can only be carried over Brit
sh-controlled or French-controlled
lines
The business world of the United
States, with our ambitious new plans
for expansion in the realm of mer-
chant shipping especially, does not
look with favor upon such an ar
1t savors of censorship
and has other disagreeable, not TO
say disadvantageous. aspects.
-Four Cable Systems Affected.
-Four different German cable sys-
TENS are in controversy, though the
ones in which America is most in
terested are the two lines linking
up Europe with North America
across the North Atlantic. A third
system ran from Germany to va
rious places on the west coast of
Africa, with a line from Liberia to
Brazil The fourth cable in ques-
ton lies in the far Pacific and con-
meets the Dutch East Indies with
the American trans-Pacific cable
and with China The cable touches
zap. in the Caroline Island group,
which has been assigned to Japan
as mandate territory. This cable
was seized and is still retained by
Japan. She too. like the Western
powers, declines to part with the
spoils of war.
The Northern transatlantic ca
bles, which formerly ran from En-
den, Germany, via the Azores, to
New York were cut simultaneously
by the British and French navies in
Dover channel as one of the open
ing acts of war with Germany. The
British eventually picked up one OF
the severed cables and re-laid it's
terminus on the coast of Penzance
the westernmost point of England
in the Atlantic, later transferring
it's Western terminus from New
York to Halifax. where it now is,
The French fished up the cable they
cut and planted its European end
near Brest. They did not disturb
the Western terminus, but trans
Cable Company of the
;t
formerly lodged, to the French
quarters.
o. S. Demanded "service.-
The United States during the In
Communications Confer
ence at Washington has expressed
it's readiness to assent to any dis
position of the former German
cables that guaranteed us service"
such as the United States enjoyed
prior to the war. If the allies were
"fussy" about running cables into
Germany, then the United States
would consider landing them in
Holland or in Denmark-any rea-
place. so long as America
should get direct. unhampered serv-
Ice to Central and Northern Europe.
Service subject to control of Eng
land or France would not be con-
sidered as equivalent. The United
States has not insisted on owner
ship of the cables. With the serv-
ice restored. the United States will
consider other ownership or joint
ownership with operating lease to
an American company.
Almost any scheme would be suit
able to US provided only that Amer
lean business could be assured
against the risk of double
ing" to use a term that, though
vulgar, is not unknown in interna-
tional practice even among former
in arms. America has
many a tale to unfold on that count.
The question of eventual ownership
of the former German cables Is not
the point on which the United States
LAYS most stress. That could be
fixed up to our satisfaction in a va
riety of ways. What we are after
is as independent and useful a cable
service as we enjoyed with Europe
and other countries, before 1914.
New Cable Cost Prohibitive.
If the economics of the world. es-
the supply and price of raw
were not so topsy-turvy,
America might simply proceed to
lay down new transoceanic cables
of her own. That would be the
most direct way of declaring our
of a threatened Brit
ish and French cable monopoly.
But existing conditions are we'll
nigh prohibitive. The cost of gutta-
percha Is fabulous and the available
supply extremely limited.