[xi] DRAFT AGREEMENT IN REGARD TO ANGLO-CONTINENTAL WIRELESS. 1. The term of the agreement to be 25 years from the 1st January, 1924, during which period the Company shall be licensed to erect stations for and to conduct public Wireless Services, both Telegraph and Telephone, between the United Kingdom and the Continent of Europe, subject to the conditions of agreement. 2. The agreement not in any way to restrict the right of the Postmaster General to grant at any time licences to other Companies for the conduct of Wireless Services, whether by Telegraph or Telephone, with European countries. 3. An Advisory Board to be established comprising two representatives of the Post Office and two representatives of the Company, to which shall be referred any question affecting the Post Office and the Company as to the conduct of the services, the provision of new services, the division of traffic and similar matters. In the event of any other Company being hereafter licensed to conduct Wireless services, representatives of that Company may be added to the Advisory Board. Before any third party, however, be admitted to the Advisory Board, either party shall be at liberty to put forward any grounds which might render it inadvisable for such third party to be admitted. 4. As regards Wireless Telegraph services, the Post Office will at the outset serve the Scandinavian countries, Italy, Holland, the Baltic States (namely, Finland, Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Poland. The Company will serve France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, and, subject to the concurrence of the foreign administrations concerned, Germany, Greece and Russia. 5. As regards Wireless Telephone services, the Company will at the outset be licensed to establish services with France and Holland, subject to the concurrence of those administrations. 6. The distribution of other Anglo-Continental Wireless services, both Telegraph and Telephone, and of additional services to the above-mentioned countries, will be a matter of arrangement after consideration by the Advisory Board, the principle of distribution being the general public advantage and the efficiency of communications, having regard to the geographical position, general suitability and available capacity of stations, whether of the Company or the Post Office, now existing or in course of construction. 7. The Company to receive all net profits up to an amount sufficient to pay 7 per cent. on the capital expenditure. Profits thereafter to be divided in accordance with an agreed scale. 8. The Post Office to be entitled to purchase the stations at the expiry of the seventh, tenth, fifteenth or twentieth year, commencing from 1st January, 1924, on giving 18 months' notice to the Company of its intention so to do. The purchase price to the Company shall be the then value of the stations, plus a further payment, to be calculated on the following basis :: The value of the stations, for the purpose of calculating the purchase price, shall be the actual value, excluding patent rights, at the time of taking over, and shall be fixed by independent valuation in the case of disagreement between the parties, provided that if any station (or circuit) is not in good working order, the cost of putting it into good working order shall be borne by the Company. The additional payment to be made to the Company shall be the then value of two-thirds of the Company's share of the total estimated profits, less 5 per cent. on the capital expenditure, during the remainder of the licence, based upon the three years preceding the taking over of the station. If, at the expiry of the twentieth year, the stations shall not have been taken over by the Post Office, the Post Office shall, upon expiry of the licence, either take over such stations as may be operating within the meaning of this agreement at their then value, which shall be ascertained on the same basis as agreed upon in respect of earlier purchase, without any additional payment, or else shall extend the present licence for five years, save as regards the provisions of the present clause. The Post Office, in the event of purchase, to have the right to use, at the station, without royalty or any other payment, the Company's patents in use at that station on or before the date of purchase. For the purpose of this and the preceding clause, the Post Office shall be entitled to inspect the Company's books in so far as they relate to the aforesaid licences and the maintenance of Anglo-Continental services. 9. All traffic arrangements and rates (which at the outset shall be the same as the rates by existing routes), together with the allocation of rates as between the stations of the Company in the United Kingdom and abroad, shall be referred to the Advisory Board. 10. Traffic shall be divided between the Government Telegraph services and the Wireless Telegraph services conducted by the Company or by any other Company which may hereafter be licensed for the purpose, in accordance with the exigencies of the service and subject to the general principle that the delays by the alternative routes should, as far as possible, be equalised. 11. As regards Wireless Telegraph services, the exchange of traffic between the Post Office and the Company (including the provision by the Post Office of any private telegraph wires necessary for the purpose) shall be on terms no less favourable than those granted to any third party. Terminal payments will be charged at the ordinary inland rate per word for the time being on all messages collected or delivered by the Post Office, but the terminal payments shall be subject to an abatement equal to 25 per cent. of the profits accruing to the Post Office under clause 7, provided that this abatement shall not in any one year exceed 25 per cent. of the terminal payments in respect of that year. Terminal payments shall be held to include payments in respect of transit messages which will be charged at the rate of 4 centimes per each paid word passing over the Company's services. 12. As regards Wireless Telephone services the Post Office will provide the necessary means of connecting the terminal points in this country of any Wireless Telephone service which the Company may be licensed to conduct and the Post Office Telephone system and/or any private telephone wires required by the Company for such services. The charges receivable by the Post Office in respect of such private telephone wires shall be at the normal rate and on terms no less favourable than those accorded to other private users. The charges receivable by the Post Office for connecting local calls with the Company's terminal col. lecting centre shall be at the normal local rate for the time being. The charges receivable by the Post Office for connecting Trunk calls with the Company's collecting centres shall be at the normal Trunk rate for the time being applicable to the area concerned. 13. The wave lengths used by the Company and the locality of any new station which the Company are licensed to erect shall be referred to the Advisory Board. The Post Office shall not be bound to approve any particular wave length or to approve wave lengths for stations which are not actually in course of construction, and shall not, by virtue of its approval of wave lengths assigned to the Company, give the Company a virtual monopoly of such wave lengths. The Post Office, on the other hand, having approved of Marconi wave lengths, agrees not to license another Company for a wave length so near to it as necessarily to cause interference. 14. As regards new inventions and research, the Post Office and the Company agree to communicate to each other any new results which may be a without necessarily disclosing the details of processes by nese results have been attained. Results which may indicate methods of working which it is desirable for either party to the agreement to adopt to be considered by the Advisory Board with a view to arrangements for adoption on agreed terms. (The Post Office also proposed the mutual free user of existing patents. Printed under the authority of HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE |