existence reach the American Continent by way of Nova Scotia, and Canada has therefore a multiplied and adequate connection with the Mother-land. With the Pacific the case was long very different. The absence of any cable link across that ocean left a dangerous gap in the telegraphic equipment of the Empire. Five years ago the general demand that the great public interests at stake should not be allowed to depend on the security of cable lines which pass through foreign countries and European waters led to united action between the larger British communities to remedy this defect in our national system. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand joined together to establish an all-British line of cable by way of the Pacific. Traversing Canada by established lines from Nova Scotia to Vancouver, it passes on through various Pacific island stations under our flag to New Zealand and Australia, thence connecting with lines to India and South Africa. As the result of that effort for united national action the Empire to-day possesses, through Canada, an alternative line of cable communication to fall back upon if those through Europe and Asia should fail.
The new conditions arising in the East make it practically certain that another Pacific cable must soon connect Canada with Japan, Hong Kong, and our other centres of Eastern interest. The United States found such a Transpacific cable necessary as soon as they took charge of the Philippines, and our need cannot be less. When the three great railway systems of Canada have fixed their termini on the coast of British Columbia, telegraphic communication with Asia by way of San Francisco will not long content them.
But the completion of the Pacific cable as a State-owned and a State-managed line has led to the earnest consideration in Canada of a much larger question. For many years Sir Sandford Fleming, to whom must be assigned much of the credit for educating public opinion on the importance of the Pacific route, has
