On Friday, in obedience to the apparently unalterable law that
important news shall always be published on the day most inconvenient to weekly newspapers, the terms under which the Morgan Trust has purchased the various lines were given to the world. It appears that the White Star, Dominion, American, Atlantic Transport, and Leyland Lines are pur- chased outright by a Syndicate with a capital of £34,000,000, under American control. The Cunard Line still stands out. The purchased lines seem to have secured very favourable terms, but the shareholders bind themselves not to engage in the Atlantic trade for fourteen years. The terms say nothing as to the flag, or as to Government subsidies. In addition, the Morgan Syndicate has made a ten-year agreement with Messrs. Harland and Wolff, the great Belfast shipbuilders, under which, except when work is very slack, they are only to build or repair for the Syndicate or the German Hamburg- American Line. This agreement has caused a good deal of alarm, but it must not be forgotten that it practically ensures full work for the Belfast yard. The promise not to build for competitors is not necessarily injurious, as the Clyde and Newcastle yards can build as good steamers as Messrs. Harland and Wolff. It is, no doubt, natural that the whole transaction should have caused a great deal of annoyance here, and we do not profess not to share in that annoyance. Yet after all, that annoyance will do little or no good. What the British people, however, and especially our shippers, ought to do, is not to let their energy evaporate in futile imprecations on Mr. Morgan, but to throw themselves with vigour into competing with and beating his Trust.
