Report made on behalf of the Finance Committee charged with examining the bill, adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, approving the convention of July 10, 1885 concerning the laying and operation of a submarine telegraph cable linking the French possessions of Rio-Nunez, Grand-Bassam, Porto-Novo and Gabon to Saint-Louis in Senegal, by Mr. ROGER-MARVAISE, Senator.

SIRS,

The agreement signed on July 10, 1885 between the Minister of Marine and Colonies and the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs, on the one hand, and Mr. Mathew Gray, acting in the name and on behalf of the Company to be incorporated under the title of The West African Telegraph, on the other, is in fact nothing more than a development of the law of July 9, 1883. Under this law, Parliament approved the agreement concluded between the Government and the National Spanish Telegraph Company for the laying of the submarine telegraph cable intended to link our colony of Senegal to the European telegraph network.

A special provision in the agreement was for the extension of this cable, and at the same time, the French administration reserved the tax on connections transiting the line from Saint-Louis to Ténériffe. The government's forecasts soon came true. It was faced with proposals to link the French possessions on the African coast further south to Senegal, along with the Portuguese colonies for which a concession had just been obtained from Portugal.

These proposals were followed by an arrangement which we are now asked to approve. The Compagnie concessionnaire will establish a submarine cable along the west coast of Africa to extend the existing cable from Cadiz to Saint-Louis du Sénégal. This cable will serve the following French possessions: Rio-Nunez, Grand-Bassam, Porto-Novo and Gabon. The Company will operate and maintain it for a period ending at the same time as the concession granted for the cable from Tenerife to Saint-Louis du Sénégal. (December 12, 1909.) Agents for stations located in French possessions will be of French nationality, and must be approved by the French government.