30 MAY 1931, Page 3

The ' Empress of Britain ' On Wednesday the '

Empress of Britain' sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage to Canada. Her construction and launching are another of those milestones which, even in these depressed days, are tolerably frequent on the progressive path of transatlantic travel. It is good that Great Britain should have been reSponsible for this the latest' of them. Recent com- petition from abroad has been very keen, and, so far . as passenger traffic is concerned, our ships no longer rule the waves unquestioned. Perhaps this is inevitable. To-day the seas are crossed in caravanserais, not caravels ; it is the interior decorator, not the helmsman, who wins the respect of the modern traveller. And the English make notoriously bad hotel-keepers.