COMPANY MEETING
CABLE AND WIRELESS, LTD.
(The Operating Company)
SIR EDWARD WILSHAW'S SPEECH
THE following is an extract from the speech made by Sir Edward Wilshaw, chairman of Cable and Wireless, Limited, at the annual general meeting of the company in London on June 28:— The profit for 1944 shows a small increase of £8,865 at £1,237,757.
In the following brief review I can, I hope, show you some part of the contribution which your company has made to the common victory. In May, 1941, our Central Telegraph Station in Moorgate, with much valuable equipment, was destroyed by fire caused by enemy action. Due to forethought and careful planning, it was possible to transfer our activities to our present headquarters in Electra House, Victoria Embank- ment, and the flow of traffic was never seriously dislocated. Throughout all the periods of air raids, messengers, in cars or on bicycles, continued to deliver messages, and I know no case where a message failed to be delivered owing to an air raid.
Abroad, on Italy's entry into the war, all the cables west of Malta were cut by the Italians. In the Far East, the Japanese, on their entry into the war, overran all our cable and wireless stations in the area, depriving the company of the best and fastest route to Australia and New Zealand. The West African route to Capetown had to carry a large share of the traffic thus necessarily diverted, while the long route via the Atlantic, Canada and the Pacific, was called in to relieve the strain. Throughout these years our fleet of cable ships, protected by the Royal Navy, was almost continuously at sea in their never-ending :ask of repairing cables.
Despite the heavy losses of equipment and the necessity for expanding our services to meet war-time demands, we have had the utmost difficulty in obtaining supplies and transporting them to distant stations.
Nevertheless, the services have been maintained ; 47 new wireless circuits have been opened since September, 1939 ; the total traffic carried in 1938 comprised 231,000,000 words against no fewer than 705,000,000 words in 1944, whilst we have expanded our phototelegraph services until we are now handling as many as 2,000 pictures a month, compared with too before the war.
This brief outline of our contribution to the war effort would be incomplete without a heartfelt tribute to our staff, both here and all over the world, operating often in the most dangerous and uncomfortable conditions. The crews of our cable ships have stuck grimly to their work despite all hazards.
Despite the strenuous years of war there can be no relaxing in our determination to develop on behalf of the Empire the finest telegraphic service in the world The pressure of war has in many ways strengthened our network, but in other directions there is much leeway to be made up. Recovery of the Far Eastern circuits will throw a great strain on the company, which can be met only if we have the men and the equipment.
We have emerged from the war strengthened by the thought that by drive, initiative and foresight we have surmounted great dangers and formidable difficulties. We have shown that private enterprise in the right hands can achieve much. Experience has shown that the present cvstem offers the Merits of Government control without its disabilities. If left to our own resources and given reasonable encouragement and good will by the Governments, we and our associated companies overseas can continue to keep abreast of developments and to offer cheaper and extended telegraph services without adding to the taxpayer's burden.
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