Commonwealth Telegraphs Act 1949

1949 CHAPTER 39

An Act to give effect to certain provisions of an agreement for promoting and co-ordinating the efficiency and development of the external telegraph services of the Commonwealth, and to make provision for certain matters incidental thereto and for extending the system, heretofore embodied in the arrangement made by the Postmaster General with Cable and Wireless, Limited, in pursuance of subsection (4) of section one of the Imperial Telegraphs Act, 1938, for the sharing of revenue derived from telegrams transmitted to or from places outside the United Kingdom.

[31st May 1949]

WHEREAS a conference of representatives of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Government in Canada, His Majesty's Government in the Commonwealth of Australia, His Majesty's Government in the Dominion of New Zealand, His Majesty's Government in the Union of South Africa, the Governor General of India in Council and the Government of Southern Rhodesia was held in London in July, nineteen hundred and forty-five, for the purpose of considering the future organisation of the external telegraph services of the Commonwealth:

And whereas the Cable and Wireless Act, 1946, carried into effect the recommendation made by the said conference that the shares of Cable and Wireless Limited (hereafter in this Act referred to as " the operating company ") held by the African Direct Telegraph Company Limited, the Eastern Telegraph Company Limited, the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company Limited, the Eastern and South African Telegraph Company Limited, the Europe and Azores Telegraph Company Limited, Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited, the West African Telegraph Company Limited, the West Coast of America Telegraph Company Limited and the Western Telegraph Company Limited should be acquired by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom:

And whereas for the purpose of giving full effect to the recommendations made by the said conference an agreement (hereafter in this Act referred to as " the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement") was entered into between His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Government in Canada, His Majesty's Government in the Commonwealth of Australia, His Majesty's Government in the Dominion of New Zealand, His Majesty's Government in the Union of South Africa, His Majesty's Government in India and the Government of Southern Rhodesia, and signed in London on their behalf on the eleventh day of May, nineteen hundred and forty-eight:

And whereas the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement provides, by clause 3 thereof, for the establishment of a body to be known as the Commonwealth Telecommunications Board (in the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement and hereafter in this Act referred to as " the Board ") having the functions and constitution set out in the Second Schedule to the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement (which Schedule is set out in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act), and, by clause 5 thereof, for the nomination or establishment by each Government for the time being a party to the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement of a department, body or public corporation (in the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement referred to as a " National Body ") for the purpose of acquiring assets of the operating company and of operating and maintaining the external telecommunication services of that Government:

And whereas it is intended that, in relation to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, the Post Office should be the National Body for the purposes of the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement:

And whereas by virtue of subsection (4) of section one of the Imperial Telegraphs Act, 1938, the Postmaster General made an arrangement with the operating company for sharing the benefit of certain sums which, under the International Telegraph Regulations, fall to be received and retained by them in respect of telegrams within the European telegraph system:

And whereas it is expedient to give effect to certain provisions of the Commonwealth telegraphs agreement and to make provision for certain matters incidental thereto and for extending the system, heretofore embodied in the said arrangement, for the sharing of revenue derived from telegrams transmitted to or from places outside the United Kingdom:

Be it, therefore, enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—