The Convention drafted by the Wireless Telegraphy Con- ference at
Berlin was published on Monday as a Parlia- mentary Paper, and cannot be described as a satisfactory document. As the whole subject, we understand, will shortly be raised in Parliament, we do not propose at the moment to enter into a detailed discussion of this most complicated controversy. We may note, however, that the invitation to attend the Conference was accepted by the last Government—though the delegates were chosen by the present Administration—and that at a Conference all the Powers count equally,—i.e., Great Britain with Uruguay or Monaco. Furthermore, it has been provided by the COnvention that at future Conferences each Power repre- sented is to have one vote, and that the colonies of a Power may have one vote each, provided that no Power together with all its colonies has more than six votes,—an arrangement which will place German Togoland on a par with Canada, and which makes it a matter for surprise as well as regret that none of our great dependencies have been officially consulted in the matter. Hostile critics of the Convention contend that by abandoning the maintenance of the Marconi monopoly we have sacrificed Imperial interests and committed ourselves to an arrangement which can only lead to chaotic results. It is at any rate clear that the Government cannot expect to convince the nation that the' Convention should be ratified unless they are able substantially to fortify the arguments to be derived from a perusal of that document.
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