The Cunarder The decision taken by the Government' in regard
to the Cunarder 'No. 534' and its possible sister ship has several important consequences. In the first place, it will enable work to be resumed on the Clyde, and will directly give employment to some thousands. of skilled men, and indirectly to some thousands of others. In the second place, in enabling a British line to recover the Blue Riband - of the Atlantic it will avert some threatened loss of -prestige to- British-passenger-shipping- though this gain would be dearly bought if Americans were unwilling to resume their old habit of travelling expensively and we were saddled with a white -elephant. But the third, and a peculiarly interesting result, is that the Government becomes an investor, to the tune possibly of 19,500,000 on debenture security, in the greatest shipping company in the world, and has assumed this responsibility only after imposing certain conditions, which have been accepted—namely, that the Cunard and White Star lines should pool their North Atlantic interests in a merger. Here is a case where -it was a condition of Government help that the businesses concerned should eliminate - wasteful competition—a precedent which ought to be followed in dealing with certain other important, but not equally 'efficient, industries.
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