HL Deb 30 July 1858 vol 151 cc2289-93
LORD WODEHOUSE

, in rising, pursuant to notice, to ask Her Majesty's Government their intentions respecting the establishment of telegraphic communication with India, said, that three distinct lines of communication had been proposed, in what he might call the western portion of the line, of which he would only say that many of the objections originally made to the line from Ragusa to Corfu and Alexandria seemed to have been removed, if he rightly understood the last proposal made by Her Majesty's Government to the Austrian Government. In his opinion it was desirable that as many of these lines should be constructed as possible in order that we might have several independent means of communication with India. In the Eastern portions of the route our choice seemed to lie between two lines—one from Bussora to Kurrachee, and the other along the line of the Red Sea. The efficiency of the first depended upon the Turkish Government, and he was not convinced that it would be a satisfactory mode of communication with India, the main objection being that the line was at the mercy of the Arabs who inhabited the wild country through which it passed. It was said that the telegraph was carried through districts in India where the tribes were quite as wild, but there was a great difference between the Governments of Turkey and India. It was true that the safety of this line might perhaps be secured by subsidizing the Arab tribes, and if the line were being made by an English company, the Arabs might have been subsidized by them; but at present the Turkish Government were con- structing the line, which would therefore be an object of jealousy to the Arabs, and the Ottoman Government might not have the influence necessary to maintain it. If the Turkish Government could succeed in making the line, it was very desirable that it should be constructed; yet, of the two, the line by way of the Red Sea seemed most likely to form an efficient mode of communication with India. The objections were principally of an engineering character. [A noble LORD: Jeddah?] The Arabs on the Red Sea might be unfriendly, but the line would be carried along the bottom of the sea. The engineering difficulties in the Red Sea being surmounted, he believed there would be no great difficulty in carrying the line from the south-east end of the Peninsula to Kurrachee or Bombay, and this he had no doubt would be the most satisfactory and secure mode of communicating with India. The question was, how this line was to be made? He believed that the proper course would be for the Government to make it at the public expense. They would then hold in their hands the key of the communication between India and Europe. It was not very creditable to the energy and enterprise of this country and of the Government that, at a time when telegraphic communication with India was of vital importance to the interests of this country, not only was no line in course of construction, but no project had been adopted which promised the speedy execution of a line of telegraphic communication; and he wished to know what were the intentions of the Government with regard to such communications.

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE

said, he quite agreed with the noble Lord in the importance of the subject, but he was unable to give him any special information that had not been already laid before Parliament. It was, no doubt, desirable that as many lines should be made as possible, but it was important that there should be one line, and the question was, which line of telegraphic communication with India could be secured in the shortest time. When the line of the Austrian Government from Ragusa to Alexandria should be completed there would be a telegraphic communication from London to Suez, because a line now existed between Alexandria and Suez. Unfortunately the Government had not been able to make an arrangement with the Austrian Government with regard to this line. There were some points in dispute between the two Govern- meats, and no absolute agreement had yet been come to. The telegraphic communication between Constantinople and Bussorah was to be made by an English Company, which had obtained the consent and support of the Ottoman Government. He admitted that portions of the line might be exposed to the attacks of hostile Arabs; but he believed that between Constantinople and Mosul no such difficulties would be encountered. The danger lay between Mosul and Bagdad, from the latter of which places it was intended to carry the telegraph in the bed of the Tigris to Bussorah, and thence by a submarine cable through the Persian Gulf to Kurrachee. For his own part, he was disposed to think that the route by the Persian Gulf was preferable to that by the Red Sea. In the first place, it was much shorter; and the experience with the Atlantic cable hardly warranted the anticipation that a submarine line could be laid down for so great a length as that of the Red Sea. In addition to this the depth of water in that sea was very various, and its bed was full of coral reefs. The Persian Gulf presented none of these difficulties. There were no great inequalities of bottom, and no coral reefs; and the gulf was studded with islands, on which, as they were under the authority of our ally the Imaum of Muscat, we might easily establish repeating stations, and over which the telegraph might be carried on poles—an advantage which we should not possess in the Red Sea. There was under the consideration of the Government another project—namely, to lay a submarine cable from the southern coast of England to Gibraltar, from Gibraltar to Malta, and thence to Alexandria, so that the whole line might be under our own control. This was a subsidiary project, and one which could not be expected to be carried out immediately; but, under all the circumstances, we should, within a reasonable period, have established telegraphic communication between London and Bombay and Calcutta.

LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE

was understood to say, that the importance of having a telegraphic communication with India was so great that it did not require any observation to prove it. It was very satisfactory to find that it was in the contemplation of the Government to give every encouragement and offer every facility to parties promoting this object, and that would in the end be greatly for the advantage of the Government. The object most desirable was that this country should possess a telegraphic communication with India which should be quite independent of every other country, and which should not be subject to disturbances that might possibly take place. As to the line suggested to be constructed through the Austrian territories, he was afraid the noble Earl (the Earl of Donoughmore) had not taken into consideration some of the circumstances and difficulties connected with that line. Upon the whole, it appeared to him, from having had some acquaintance with the circumstances, that the Government should encourage the project for a telegraphic communication to India, by way of the Red Sea as well as by way of Constantinople.

LORD STANLEY OF ALDERLEY

said, that if he was rightly informed, the Directors of the East India Company had consented to take under their own management the construction of the submarine line from Bussorah to Kurrachee, and probably the new Indian Government would adopt a similar course. For his own part, he was inclined to think that, notwithstanding the danger from the Arabs, which there was reason to hope would be diminished by the presence at Bagdad of so energetic a governor as Omar Pasha, the line by the Persian Gulf would be the best of those proposed. At the same time he agreed with the noble Lord, that it was desirable that we should have more than one line of communication with India. The question then arose how we could best communicate with Alexandria, whether directly from Malta, or by means of the Austrian line from Ragusa to Corfu. If he understood the noble Earl rightly negotiations were still pending with the Austrian Government as to our use of the last mentioned line, and nothing had yet been settled. In the event of the telegraphic line in the Mediterranean going through British possessions, he trusted that the arrangements would be such that the whole line would be in the hands of the English, and no part of it in the power of any foreign Government. If the attempt to lay the electric cable in the Atlantic again failed, and the Agamemnon should return home with a sufficient length of wire for the purpose, he would recommend that she should be at once sent out to lay it down between Malta and Alexandria. This could be accomplished in a very economical manner, and he should be glad to see such a line in the possession of Her Majesty's Government. It had always seemed to him a mistake not to make telegraphic communica- tion part of the postal system of this country. Those lines could be constructed and maintained at a very moderate expense, and made even to contribute to the national resources, besides giving a security in the transmission of important messages which could never be so completely attained through a private Company even when it was composed of British capitalists, and certainly could not equally be relied upon when in the hands of foreigners, and much less when under the direction and control of a foreign Government.