Great Britain and Africa.
East Coast.
No sooner had the cable route to India along the north coast of Africa been established in 1870 than British enterprise began to turn its attention southward to the problem of communication with our African Colonies. But the risks and cost of that enterprise were so serious, and the traffic likely to be obtained so small, that it was found impossible to act without State assistance. Years passed, and nothing could be arranged. At last, at the crisis of the Zulu War, the Colonial Minister, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, in February, 1879, announced 'the excessive and urgent importance upon political and military, as well as commercial grounds,' for cables to Natal. He added that 'it is useless, and would be wrong, for us to wait in the hope that such communication should be established by private enterprise, and it would be right for the country to take some share in the burden of establishing it upon itself.' A line of cables was accordingly laid in 1879 from Aden down the East Coast of Africa to Natal, touching on the way at Portuguese stations. The Imperial Government agreed to pay £35,000 a year for twenty years, receiving in return a rebate to the extent of one-half the ordinary tariff on its official messages. The Governments of Natal, Cape Colony, and Portugal also gave subsidies on similar terms. As an instance of the risks of cable-laying, it is worth mentioning that the section between Zanzibar and Mozambique had to be duplicated at the cost of £117,000, owing to breaks constantly caused by the Rovuma River.
To confine attention to the East Coast, this line, so far as regards the portion between Zanzibar and Durban, was gradually duplicated. In 1898 a cable was laid under subsidy from Zanzibar to Seychelles, and thence to Mauritius; and next Mauritius was united to Durban in 1901. Thus, the line is duplicated, except from Aden to Zanzibar, and is entirely all-British, viâ Durban-
