In the House of Conuuons on Monday there was an
interesting debate. on the work of the Imperial Cable and Wireless Conference which is now sitting. Labour speakers feared that the merger between the Eastern Telegraph Company and the Marconi Companies indicated that the Government intended to hand over the highly profitable Beam service, now conducted by the Post Office, to private enterprise. Marconi finance came in for abuse, but the real motive behind the Labour speeches was the preference of nationalization to private enterprise. The fact is that the Beam service has reached such perfection and can be so cheaply worked that it threatens to put the cables out of business. Yet any State would be mad which allowed its cables to perish, for they may . be indispensable in an emergency. They alone ensure secrecy.
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