The question of our national policy towards wireless telegraphy has
been much discuseed . in the Press of late, while the Berlin Conference is still sitting. Roughly speaking, thete are two main views on the subject. One school. holds that the Marconi system, which is an exclusi4ly British patent, is specifically different from, and superior to, any other, and that it is our business, in the words of Processor Fleming, to "retain for Imperial purposes the iiaition., of superiority we hold in it at the present moment.", The other school, of which Sir Oliver Lodge is representative, argues for an International Wireless Telegraphy Convention, as proposed by Germany, on the lines of the Postal Union, and against any British monopoly. A British monopoly, they argue, means the stereotyping of one system, when it is probable that different systems may be better for the different purposes of land- signalling and ship-signalling. The important clause of the Berlin draft proposals provides that "all .coast stations and all apparatus in ships shall be obliged to exchange messages without regard to the system of wireless telegraphy which they severally employ,"—a pf °vision which cuts at the root of a British mono-pely. It is a haat/ter on which tha layman is powerless to judge ; hut, sin& We Understand that the Admiralty strongly advocate the reftisal be subinit to an International Convention, we would urge upon the Govern- ment that all weight should be given to their views. It is, to our mind, primarily a ntial question, and the Sea Lords should decide.
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