The debate in the Commons on Wednesday night on the
Atlantic Shipping Agreements between his Majesty's Government and the Cunard Company and the Inter- national Mercantile Marine Company shows that the arrangement, which has certainly allayed the panic caused by the Morgan Shipping Syndicate, met with very general approval. The loan of 22,600,000 to the Cunard Line at 2 per cent., and the subsidy of £150,000, were severely criticised by Mr. E. Robertson, the Member for Dundee, as being more than an equivalent for the building of two swift vessels capable of continuously steaming 24i knots. Sir William Allan, however, pointed out that when the subsidy was divided among the nineteen steamers that had to be kept efficient and which the Government could take practically at any time they wanted them, it would only represent £8,000 each ; and that " when the interest to be paid by the Cunard Company on the loan was added to the one-twentieth of the capital sum to be paid back and deducted from the total subsidy, the balance was only about £16,500 per annum." Mr. Arnold-Forster declared that "under this arrangement nine-tenths of the cost was borne commercially, and the remaining tenth was a military contribution, a thoroughly sound transaction ;,'" while Mr. Bryce, though protesting vigorously against any settled policy of subsidies, admitted that "this present case was not an ordinary subsidy. It was rather a bargain for certain naval purposes." He did not, however, think it a good bargain. Admiral Colomb disliked the policy, and was " satisfied that the Admiralty had not really considered fully the problem of the protection of our commerce in timed war." The real question ii the speed of the new vowels;
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