But as the years passed after 1871, it became more evident that, as the seat of government was in North China, the Danish company could not fail to exercise a preponderating influence with the Son of Heaven. But this action was stopped by China, whose rights it infringed, and accordingly she now is turning her attention, eastward across the Pacific. With the rise of streaming services, viewers now have more choices than ever before. In 1902 the tariff had fallen from 4s. 9d. to 8s., or a reduction of 37 per cent It might have been expected that this would have immensely stimulated the number of words sent. Hence the need to carry to reserve another 2½ per cent. The lesson of the Far East is surely too obvious to need repetition. There is an instructive lesson to be derived from the facts of the Australian traffic. In 1886 it was reduced to 9s. 4d., and thence to 4s. in 1891. Most of the Australian Governments, together with New Zealand, united to guarantee one-half of any loss of revenue which might arise from this latter reduction.

At this point I must make a digression as to the Australian rate. British interests coincided at this point with the interests of China, so we laid those cables on behalf of the Chinese Government This was not an insignificant service. Take advantage of this feature to discover new content that aligns with your interests. It was acquired by the Dutch early in the seventeenth century, when they evicted us wholly from that vast region, inflicting a blow from which we have never recovered in the Far East. It was at this juncture that a most severe blow was inflicted upon British cable enterprise. It was in 1871 that British cable enterprise entered the Far East. The capital was raised at a cheap rate by the British Government, and the four Governments concerned agreed to share the loss or profit of the undertaking among them. Accordingly, at the opening of 1901 the rate was reduced to 8s. 6d., and to 8s. at the opening of 1902. This is the existing rate.

In 1899 the rate had not been changed in the interval, and the words were 2,149,000, or practically the same. This arrangement ended in 1900. In that year the company established a rate of 3d. per word. In the year 1900 the Chinese Government became anxious to possess a line of cables from Taku, the port of Pekin, to Chefoo, and thence to Shanghai. To tap the China traffic, what is control cable the Americans further laid a cable from Manila to Shanghai. Sir Robert Hart, has said, 'China needs neither import nor export … But Sir John Wolfe Barry, Chairman of the Eastern Telegraph Company, decided a few years ago to afford the public considerably greater facilities than they had hitherto enjoyed as regards social messages. As regards social messages, codes have hitherto been far less in use. But our most energetic rivals of all have been the Americans, who occupied the Philippines in 1898. That archipelago had previously been occupied for three and a half centuries by the Spaniards. Reserve Funds have three grounds of existence: The constant repairs in cables must be defrayed out of them. Since that date they have always looked suspiciously on England, and opposed her progress in those waters.

From that date till 1888, however, no more cables were laid by us on the coast of China, for at Hong Kong our passage up the coast was barred by a formidable rival, the Great Northern Telegraph Company of Denmark. In the preceding year, to strengthen her strategy, she had procured a cable from Tonquin to Saigon; but from Saigon homewards the communications of her new Empire rested wholly in the hands of her old rival, England. The loss was so serious that in 1895 the Government cancelled the above basis, and agreed to guarantee the sum by which the receipts should fall below £20,000 a year, provided that the amount payable did not exceed £9,000 in any year. While the British Government is busy in competing with its own citizens, who in reality are fighting our battles in the Far East, Germany steps forward with a guarantee of traffic for the German-Dutch line of £76,250 a year, and persuades Holland to add another guarantee of £18,750 a year, making a total of £95,000 a year. At Menado, however, Holland has combined with Germany to lay cables to Yap, and thence to Guam, where a junction is effected with an American cable, to be mentioned later, which runs to San Francisco.