The Allied and American delegates who have been conferring at
Washington about the future ownership of the ex-German cables concluded their sittings last week without coming to an agreement. Great Britain and Italy accepted the American proposal that the cables should be held in joint ownership ; France and Japan objected, desiring to retain what they had captured, especially the Brest—New York cable and the cable from Yap in the Carolines to Shanghai. By the Peace Treaty, Germany assigned these cables to the Principal Allied and Associated Powers, who were to credit to her the value of such cables as were privately owned. It seems clear, then, that America is entitled to her share of the cables, irrespective of the circumstances of their capture. We regret to see that promoters of new American cable companies are suggesting that the British Government take an unfair advantage of the fact that most of the cables are British. To any Englishman the suggestion that the Board of Trade would scrutinize American commercial messages in the interests of British traders seems preposterous. If our merchants depended on the Board of Trade for hints as to how to conduct their business, we should be in a sad plight.
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