strenuously advocated the establishment of a complete system of Empire cables, owned and operated jointly by the various Governments in the interests of the whole Empire. During the past two years the Board of Trade of Ottawa, the capital city of the Dominion, has shown great energy in the study of the question, and has brought it under the consideration of public bodies in all parts of the Empire. A pamphlet, lately issued by the Board as the result of its inquiries, proves conclusively that business men in every part of the Empire look upon the scheme as one likely to profoundly affect our future as a nation. For a people scattered as is our British race in all quarters of the globe, and yet aspiring to closer commercial intercourse, to complete political unity and effective mutual support, rapidity, ease, and cheapness of communication are of the very essence of our needs.
Hence the long and persistent effort which has at length been crowned with the almost universal adoption of penny postage throughout the Empire. Hence the establishing and subsidizing of swift steamship lines along the main routes of intercommunication. Hence the constant endeavour to induce the companies which control the lines of cable connection to lower the rates at which messages are conveyed.
If penny postage round the Empire—if the sixpenny telegram rate throughout the United Kingdom—have come to be regarded as boons of the first magnitude, then surely the cheapest possible rate for cable communication with every part of the Empire is a still greater boon to which we should look forward! It is one to which we have a right to look forward. The lowering of postage rates has always been followed by an immense increase in the volume of business done, and hence in the profits derived from the Post-Office. The lowering of cable rates would have a corresponding result. Partly through an increased volume of business, partly under the pressure of competition, the companies controlling the cable communication with the East and
