INDONESIA WAS A key location in the development of the early telegraph system in the Far East. From 1870 to 1891 the main group of telegraph cables to and from Indonesia was laid, creating excellent communications between Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia and thence to the rest of the world.
These cables were laid by the British Australian Telegraph Company and the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company. Cable & Wireless remained in Indonesia until 1963. In 1994 a new Cable & Wireless representative office was opened in Jakarta.
In 1942, Cable & Wireless staff at Banjoewangie on Java, J.B.C. Henderson and W.E. Coates, kept communications going until the last minute when the Japanese invaded the cable station. During the Japanese occupation the company’s premises were used as an army command post.
Staff Quarters.
Cable & Wireless and Dutch General Post and Telegraph office at Batavia, 1947.
