§ SIR EDWARD SASSOON (Hythe)To ask the Postmaster General, as representing the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether he will consider the advisability of arranging with the Pacific Cable Board that, in the interval before opening the Pacific cable to public traffic, or at any other early and convenient date, the consulting engineers to the Board should conduct a series of speed trials over the Vancouver to Fanning Island cable to ascertain, in the interest of scientific knowledge, how many letters per minute this cable is capable of carrying under the simplex and duplex conditions of working, and under either or both of these conditions, when an automatic curb is employed, and whether a report of such trials, together with the final tests after the laying of this cable, can be made public.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain, for the Secretary of State for the Colonies.) I am glad to be able to say that the cable has been laid in perfect condition and that the tests for insulation and conductivity are satisfactory. The consulting engineers of the Pacific Cable Board have conducted a series of speed trials over the Vancouver to Fanning section of the cable. These tests show that the cable is capable of carrying eighty-five letters a minute with 1306 hand working, one hundred letters a minute with automatic curb working, and, approximately, one hundred and sixty-eight letters a minute (eighty-four letters each way) with duplex and curbed automatic working. These tests exceed the anticipations of the expert witnesses who gave evidence before the Pacific Cable Committees.