The Road to the East Though the P. and 0.
does not go in for giant speed-ships —and cannot, because they could not navigate the Suez Canal—its record for a hundred years forms, nevertheless, a great chapter in the great history of British shipping. It originally built up its Eastern supremacy on the basis of the Overland Route, i.e. the Suez land-connexion between two more or less synchronised sea-services. When the Suez Canal was opened all its advantages in that respect were lost. A period of severe set-back, however, was followed by a pro- longed and remarkable recovery under the chairmanship of Sir Thomas Sutherland. 1914-18 brought another set-back, followed by yet another recovery. Today the P. and 0. still shows a brave front ; but, like other British shipping enter- prises, it is gravely menaced by the subsidised competition of foreign lines. Shipping subsidies, for all their folly, are an evil whose growth nothing seems permanently to arrest.
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