Norwirnstaxpixe the denials and explanations that have appeared, all in-api me form by the two cable Companies concerned, there seems to be very little doubt that the statements on which we have commented as to the effect of the convention recently grade at Chefoo are substantially correct.
'Attempts have been made in various ways to disguise it, but the fact remains that it was agreed to pay the Chinese' Telegraph Administration an annual subsidy to induce it to keep up the' price of telegrams to Europe. As to the exact sum there are considerable differences; and as to the pretext on which the payment was to be made, From one authority we learn that it is not more than thirty thousand dollars a ear at the outside; while it is generally believed in Peking to be at least! ten thousand taels a month. Our Correspondent who wrote from Chefoo sug: gested that it might be made in consideration of the right to the Companies to land their cables in China being; formally recognised; but on the other hand we know on good authority that the Chinese Government has never asked any payment for the permission, and does not contemplate asking it. Another authority contends that the payment is to be made in consideration of the interference of the cable between Hongkong and the ports up to Shanghai with the land lines; as usual, there are never wanting ways of whipping the devil round the stwnp when it has been found necessary to undertake that operation, The Great Northern Company and the Bastern Extension Company saw, and have seen for some time, that wu less they could come to an arrangement with the Chinese service, the price of telegrams to Europe would be reduced, and rings, or pools, or joint} purses, as they are variously termed, being the fashionable means by which public companies nowadays exploit the public whom they are supposed to serve, they set to work to enlarge their own pool to Jet the Chinese in. Reliance on the agreement with Russia, which was put forward by our Chefoo Corr pondent as the safeguard of the Danish company and its colleague, was any: thing but secure. If Russia had formally refused to allow the Chinese lines to join hers in Siberia—which she could hardly do w y good face after having been is ars to pr lo 0 allow the junction—the Chinese imple courses open to them. The first was to become parties them-to the Convention, which under their line opposit and send their agent across the frontier with the despatches, which he would hand in to the Russian official for transmission. The Russian office could not refuse the messages, for Article 1 of the International Telezraph Convention reads, "The High Contracting Parties recognise the right of all per-ons to correspond by means of the international telegraphs," and by Article "they undertake to adopt all necessary measures to insure the secrecy of messages, and their prompt despatch." The Servize Regulations attached to the Convention distinctly recognise the right to send telegrams in ciphi, the only exception being in Article IX of the Re-
tions are authorised to decline to admit upon their lines private telegrams con= taining letters which have a secret mean: ing." Exactly what this provision means it is difficult to say; but if it means that the extra-European administrations might decline cipher messages altogether, it would say so; and it is obvious that Russia, even if so, could not decline to take cipher messages from a Chinese depositor unless the refusal were universal. The parties to the Convention reserve to themselves the right to stop the transmission of any private telegram which may appear dangerous to the security of the State, and on that ground any Power may refuse to transmit cipher telegrams in time of war; but such refusal vould have to be universal, and in a time of peace, Russia and China bein, on good terms, the Russian line coul not refuse to transmit telegrams that were handed it to it at Hunchun, or some other point on the Siberian frontier by a Chinaman, and_ receive telegrams handed to it by a Dane at Wladiwostock.
If we are entirely wrong, and if the companies are not conspiring to burden the foreign communities in China and Japan for ten or fifteen years, or what ever the period may be, with an necessary charge for telegraphing, they have a very simple course open to them, which would set them right at once with the public; they have merely to publish dhe text of the convention, and let the world know its full extent. It is no use to promise to publish it after it is ratified; it is too late to give us the receipt for the sauce, after we have been cooked and eaten, So far the efforts of Messrs. Judd and Henning sen have, we know, been abortive and it is common talk in Peking that they are by no means displeased at their want of stecess, as every delay defers the first monthly payment to the Chinese service, while they are getting the full rate of $2 a word all the time. In fact, jit ould be a gain to the cable com: panies if the negotiations could be prolonged for a year or two. It is reported that the British Minister is upholding the convention, because our government is anxious that the Eastern Extension Company shall be kept up, and is afraid that if the rate for telegrams were reduced, as it would be without a convention, the company might be unable to keep up its China line. We believe, as we said before, that this danger is_quite imaginary. As long as the Eastern Extension Company controls the traffic between Singapore, French Indo-China, and Hongkong, there no fear of their allowing their cable to fall into disuse. Politically, there is no advantage whatever, as our goverument must know, in doing anything to keep up the Danish Company; for every message it sends is as much controlled by Russia as those sent over the Chinese lines will be. Fortunately for the public that sends telegrams, there is a good
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.