'Telegraph and travel. A narrative of the formation and development of telegraphic communication between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental notices of the countries traversed by the lines.' [‎62] (95/782)

telegraph and travel.
[chat.
the chronicler of its formation and utilisation search lor
his data elsewhere than in the shelves of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors.
and tributary departments.
It is by no means strange that the first mention ot
international negotiation betwixt England and Turkey
for a telegraph to India should be found recorded in the
annals of 1856. The alliance cemented by the ( rimean
war, and the enhanced value resulting from that war to
telegraphic communication as a State requirement, would
alone have ensured favourable reception by British
diplomatists of a scheme to render available the vast
Ottoman territory between Belgrade and Basrah, for a
line of posts and wires in connection with an Indian sub
marine cable. Later, however, causes arose to give fresh
impetus to the demand for an Anglo-Indian telegrap i ,
and the Indian Mutiny of 1857, and failure of the
Red Sea Cable in 1859, made it more than ever urgent
to investigate and determine the lines otiering the
best advantages to telegraphic communication between
Western Europe and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
In August 1856, when cables, and companies for the
construction and use of cables, were not so numerous as
at present, the European and Indian Junction Telegraph
Company applied to the then existing Court of Direc
tors of the East India Company for a guarantee on an
estimated expenditure of 200,000/. for a line of land
telegraph from Seleucia, or Suadiah, on the Syrian
coast, to Korna, at the junction of the Tigris and
Euphrates. 1 The link, if successfully completed and
worked, would have rendered comparatively facile a
1 Mr. Andrew to the Secretary, East India Company, August 5, 18.)6 .
" Correspondence respecting the Establishment of Telegraphic Communica
tions in the Mediterranean and with India,' page 128.