Page:The empire and the century.djvu/292

 revenue was maintained, then the rate in due course was to be further reduced to 2s. 0d, This was done in the autumn of 1905. The rate to New York, which has been driven down to the lowest payable point by competition, works out at 3&middot;4d. per 1,000 miles, while the cable rate to India, deducting the terminal rate paid to the Indian Government, works out at 2&middot;55d.

The seas through which the cables pass from England to India are, on the whole, fairly well adapted to cables. Reckoning anything over 1,000 fathoms as deep sea, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean are deep seas in the parts mostly traversed by this route. Deep sea suits cables, because the globigerinous ooze deposited in those depths covers and protects the wire, though faults and breakages are by no means unknown in such depths, the causes of which are somewhat obscure. On the other hand, the Red Sea is shallow, and so are the waters near Malta and Gibraltar. The danger of a shallow sea is that tides may reach the bottom, scour the rocks, and chafe the cable till it is broken. Besides, the anchor is the enemy of the cable laid in a shallow sea. Another danger is the south-west monsoon blowing for several month each year in the Indian Ocean. This prevents the mending of the cable during that period.

Meanwhile, subsidiary to this main line, a multitude of short cables began to radiate from the trunk route, uniting every important European nation. 'Concessions from foreign Governments and understandings with foreign companies were obtained which the Imperial Government could never have secured.'

From 1870 to the present time, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Tunis, France, Italy, Austria, Greece, Tripoli, Crete, Cyprus, Turkey, and Russia have allowed British capital and British enterprise to connect them with our system, in complete reliance upon the proved international uprightness and fair dealing of our citizens. It is sometimes said that the Imperial Govern-