Footnote [15]:
This was my first time when I started getting interested in global telecommunication networks. I learned that the telex system from Sidney, Australia went to Hong Kong, to Singapore, to India, to London, and then to New York across the Atlantic. I then wondered why it did not come from Sidney to the West Coast of the U.S. across the Pacific and then to New York. I further learned later that the global telex system was mostly laid out by Cable & Wireless Company of the Great Britain for their colonial governance, e.g., Hong Kong as a hub of telex in Far Eastern Asia, instead of Japan. This was why Kokusai Denshin Denwa (KDD), Japanese overseas telecommunication authority, considered Cable & Wireless in Hong Kong as their arch-rival for their desire to make Tokyo as the financial center in Asia. This rivalry was one of the factors when I tried to extend the U.S. packet-switching network to Japan -- more later.

According to The New York Times a few years ago, Kaiser of Germany sent a telex message to the German Embassy in Washington, D.C. as soon as the World War I started, saying that if Mexico would ally with Germany and if Germany would win the war, Mexico could have their old territories of California, Arizona, New Mexico, and a part of Texas. The telex was eavesdropped by British in London. However, British could not send it directly to President Wilson with fear of infringing privacy of telecommunication. British forged it as if it was found at the German Embassy in Mexico City, and submitted to President Wilson.

This incidence showed how important global telecommunication system is, especially for international affairs.