[Enclosure]
Memorandum on International Telegraphic
Communication
I.—The removal of all economic barriers and the
establishment of an equality of trade conditions.
(a) The cable and the radio are the avenues
through which rapid economic, industrial and financial exchanges are
effected. Their present management is a barrier and their free use
to the citizens of all countries is a necessary prerequisite to the
establishment of equality of trade conditions. The terms and
conditions of their use necessarily affect the partiality or
impartiality with which business can be transacted between the
citizens of different countries.
(b) These terms and conditions include:
- 1.
- Rates of service, which should be equal for the citizens
of all nations and should not discriminate in favor of the
nationals of the country operating the system.
- 2.
- Volume of messages to be carried each day, which should be
equably arranged so that the nationals of the operating
country may not have an allotment of words per day so large
as to exclude the possibility of use by nationals of other
countries. Also, the number of words per day of business of
nationals foreign to the controlling country should not be
limited to such a small number as to prevent being sent the
volume of business which the citizens of the sending country
might desire.
- 3.
- The hours of the day (particularly in the case of radio
because of the change in static) during which messages will
be received for transmission should be so arranged as to
permit the transmission of messages to the citizens of all
countries, if they are filed. The difference of clock time
in different countries and the consequent difference in time
of opening and closing of banks, bourses, exchanges, etc.,
permits of manipulation of messages so as to favor those
emanating from the citizens of the controlling power. This
should be prohibited.
These terms and conditions can be so arranged as to permit the full
and free transmission of messages to and from the citizens of all
nations with perfect impartiality. It applies to press messages as
well as to those of regular commerce. Through the press messages the
citizens learn, in the newspapers, of the citizens of other
countries, learn their customs, business methods, their mode of
life, their habits and their thoughts. Through them peoples learn to
know peoples and a stimulation is given to travel, commerce and
reciprocal business.
(Note—As our example of discrimination
against foreign business the British cable to Rio de Janeiro is
pointed out. The press allotment from London is:
English origin, 1500 words—United States origin, 150 words. The
rate is—per word—English origin, 12¢—U. S. origin, 50¢. This is
a sample of a barrier.)
(c) Exclusive rights (whether by treaty or
grant) to land cables—or to lay them in territorial waters—tends to
maintain the status quo, to continue the
national control and to encourage discrimination against rivals in
international trade. All such exclusive rights should be abolished
and territorial waters and cable landing rights thrown open to the
citizens of all nations on an equal basis.
(d) Radio stations, their sites, erections,
equipment and operation should be controlled or supervised by the
Government of the country in which they are located. The development
of the radio is reaching such a high degree and its availability
becoming so general that an uncontrolled and universal use of radio
communication through a multiplicity of stations with a variety of
equipments will gradually lead to a confusion which may become
complete. In cable and telegraphic communication transmission is
along a wire which is susceptible of control. In radio communication
transmission is through ether which is common property and not
susceptible
[Page 537]
to control.
The only way to bring order out of wireless operations is to subject
the sending apparati to such degree of supervision as will insure
its proper use. An international agreement, something on the order
of the Postal Union, in which each government in the world agrees to
supervise the operation of all radio stations located in the lands
and waters under its jurisdiction would eliminate all individual
operations and make for a universal, systematic and free
communication through the commonly owned medium, ether.
(Note: The development of the radio
has reached a higher stage today in the United States than
in any other country. Experiments during, the war have
reduced the wireless to a high degree of science. Other
countries will gradually arrive at the state at which we
have arrived and may surpass us. While we are in the
ascendency we can generously and graciously take the
initiative in a movement to establish regularity by
universal governmental agreement, even going so far as to
internationalize continental stations and such insular
stations as are necessary or convenient for the relaying of
messages across large bodies of water. In the last sentence
particular reference is made to the Pacific Ocean and
certain strategically situated islands which are either or
both radio and cable stations and which are variously under
the jurisdiction of the United States, England, France,
Japan, ex-German under Japanese occupation and ex-German
under British occupation.)
II.—The League of Nations
(a) Cable and radio apparati assume an
international importance under a League of Nations. They are the
only rapid means of communication between the members of such a
League and between the citizens and subjects of each of them. They
should be controlled by the League. If such were the case no hostile
messages and no disturbing intrigues could be carried out through
these means. Equable arrangements could be made which would ensure
the common use of the world’s system for the common good.
(b) Unless England is to continue to be the
manufacturer and consequently the controller of cables some
arrangement must be made to make available to the United States and
other nations the supply of a certain quality of gutta-percha which
alone is serviceable for insulating submarine cables and which is
found only in the Malay Peninsula—else a substitute must be
discovered. As it is today England controls the supply of
insulation, consequently of cable manufacture,—and also the
manufacture of cable instruments.
To permit of the laying of cables wherever wanted and their free
operation the League of Nations must—
- 1.
- Make England its mandatory to manufacture and sell cables
and instruments to any nations, or
- 2.
- Make available the British gutta-percha supply and
internationalize all present and future patents on cables or
cable instruments.