It is fairly safe to predict that one result of
the Imperial Conference will be a decision to subsidise the construction of new ships for the Canada-Australia route. Sir Edward Beatty, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway,- has an- nounced his company's willingness to build two vessels for this service if the Imperial Conference can guarantee financial aid. One British company has already been driven off this route, and the survival of any regular British service at all is a matter of urgency. For three years the question has been under discussion by the Dominion and Imperial Governments, and it is six months since the Imperial Shipping Committee's report recommended the building of two new liners. Meanwhile the trade is all going to the Americans and Japanese, whole fast new vessels could never have been built without subsidies; the American Matsen Line alone receives £250,000 a year for its Pacific services. It is unfortunate that on the eve, as it is hoped, of an Anglo- American trade agreement a measure directed primarily against American competition should be demanded, but there is no help for it. On the Pacific trade routes, as in the tramp ship industry, subsidised shipping cannot be allowed to drive unsubsidised off the seas. If need be we must hold our own till the folly of such competition is generally recog- nised and subsidies ire abolished all round. * * * *
