763.72119/2871½

The Third Assistant Secretary of State ( Long ) to the Secretary of State

My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am attaching a memorandum, which I hope you will have time to read. The subject matter is sure to come up at the Conference and will probably assume an important aspect. As you know I have been Chairman of a Committee which has been making investigations along this line. Other members of the Committee are Major-General Squires, U. S. A., Captain Todd, U. S. N., and Mr. Rogers, of the Committee on Public Information. Mr. Patchin has been serving as Secretary. A Special Committee appointed by this Committee is making some extensive investigations and will soon report, including some recommendations. These will be forwarded to you in due time, but I feel that the subject is one of such importance and so little understood generally that you may be glad to get a short memorandum which will touch some of the important phases.

Breckinridge Long
[Enclosure]

Memorandum on International Telegraphic Communication

I.—The removal of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions.

(a) The cable and the radio are the avenues through which rapid economic, industrial and financial exchanges are effected. Their present management is a barrier and their free use to the citizens of all countries is a necessary prerequisite to the establishment of equality of trade conditions. The terms and conditions of their use necessarily affect the partiality or impartiality with which business can be transacted between the citizens of different countries.

(b) These terms and conditions include:

1.
Rates of service, which should be equal for the citizens of all nations and should not discriminate in favor of the nationals of the country operating the system.
2.
Volume of messages to be carried each day, which should be equably arranged so that the nationals of the operating country may not have an allotment of words per day so large as to exclude the possibility of use by nationals of other countries. Also, the number of words per day of business of nationals foreign to the controlling country should not be limited to such a small number as to prevent being sent the volume of business which the citizens of the sending country might desire.
3.
The hours of the day (particularly in the case of radio because of the change in static) during which messages will be received for transmission should be so arranged as to permit the transmission of messages to the citizens of all countries, if they are filed. The difference of clock time in different countries and the consequent difference in time of opening and closing of banks, bourses, exchanges, etc., permits of manipulation of messages so as to favor those emanating from the citizens of the controlling power. This should be prohibited.

These terms and conditions can be so arranged as to permit the full and free transmission of messages to and from the citizens of all nations with perfect impartiality. It applies to press messages as well as to those of regular commerce. Through the press messages the citizens learn, in the newspapers, of the citizens of other countries, learn their customs, business methods, their mode of life, their habits and their thoughts. Through them peoples learn to know peoples and a stimulation is given to travel, commerce and reciprocal business.

(Note—As our example of discrimination against foreign business the British cable to Rio de Janeiro is pointed out. The press allotment from London is:

English origin, 1500 words—United States origin, 150 words. The rate is—per word—English origin, 12¢—U. S. origin, 50¢. This is a sample of a barrier.)

(c) Exclusive rights (whether by treaty or grant) to land cables—or to lay them in territorial waters—tends to maintain the status quo, to continue the national control and to encourage discrimination against rivals in international trade. All such exclusive rights should be abolished and territorial waters and cable landing rights thrown open to the citizens of all nations on an equal basis.

(d) Radio stations, their sites, erections, equipment and operation should be controlled or supervised by the Government of the country in which they are located. The development of the radio is reaching such a high degree and its availability becoming so general that an uncontrolled and universal use of radio communication through a multiplicity of stations with a variety of equipments will gradually lead to a confusion which may become complete. In cable and telegraphic communication transmission is along a wire which is susceptible of control. In radio communication transmission is through ether which is common property and not susceptible [Page 537] to control. The only way to bring order out of wireless operations is to subject the sending apparati to such degree of supervision as will insure its proper use. An international agreement, something on the order of the Postal Union, in which each government in the world agrees to supervise the operation of all radio stations located in the lands and waters under its jurisdiction would eliminate all individual operations and make for a universal, systematic and free communication through the commonly owned medium, ether.

(Note: The development of the radio has reached a higher stage today in the United States than in any other country. Experiments during, the war have reduced the wireless to a high degree of science. Other countries will gradually arrive at the state at which we have arrived and may surpass us. While we are in the ascendency we can generously and graciously take the initiative in a movement to establish regularity by universal governmental agreement, even going so far as to internationalize continental stations and such insular stations as are necessary or convenient for the relaying of messages across large bodies of water. In the last sentence particular reference is made to the Pacific Ocean and certain strategically situated islands which are either or both radio and cable stations and which are variously under the jurisdiction of the United States, England, France, Japan, ex-German under Japanese occupation and ex-German under British occupation.)

II.—The League of Nations

(a) Cable and radio apparati assume an international importance under a League of Nations. They are the only rapid means of communication between the members of such a League and between the citizens and subjects of each of them. They should be controlled by the League. If such were the case no hostile messages and no disturbing intrigues could be carried out through these means. Equable arrangements could be made which would ensure the common use of the world’s system for the common good.

(b) Unless England is to continue to be the manufacturer and consequently the controller of cables some arrangement must be made to make available to the United States and other nations the supply of a certain quality of gutta-percha which alone is serviceable for insulating submarine cables and which is found only in the Malay Peninsula—else a substitute must be discovered. As it is today England controls the supply of insulation, consequently of cable manufacture,—and also the manufacture of cable instruments.

To permit of the laying of cables wherever wanted and their free operation the League of Nations must—

1.
Make England its mandatory to manufacture and sell cables and instruments to any nations, or
2.
Make available the British gutta-percha supply and internationalize all present and future patents on cables or cable instruments.

Breckinridge Long