A message to Australia has thirteen stoppages; the route taken beyond
Bombay being via Madras, Penang, Singapore, Banjoewangie and Port
Darwin (North Australia); or from Banjoewangie to Roebuck Bay (Western
Australia).
To India by the Indo-European land lines, messages go through Emden,
Warsaw, Odessa, Kertch, Tiflis, Teheran, Bushire (Persian Gulf), Jask
and Kurrachee, but only stop twice between London and Teheran--namely,
at Emden and Odessa.
Messages from London to New York are transmitted only twice--at the
Irish or Cornwall stations, and at the stations in Canada. Owing to
the great competition for the American traffic, the service between
London, Liverpool, and Glasgow and New York is said to be much
superior to that between any two towns in Britain. The cables are
extensively used by stock brokers, and it is a common occurrence for
one to send a message and receive a reply within five minutes.
During breakages in cables messages have sometimes to take very
circuitous routes. For instance, during the two days, three years ago,
that a tremendous storm committed such havoc among the telegraph wires
around London, cutting off all communication with the lines connected
with the Channel cables at Dover, Lowestoft, etc., it was of common
occurrence for London merchants to communicate with Paris through New
York. The cablegram leaving London going north to Holyhead and
Ireland, across the Atlantic to New York and back _via_ St.
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