The Cunarder's Fate The Government has held out new hopes
of financial assistance for the completion_ of. the half- finished Cunarder 534, but only on condition that a working arrangement with the White Star Line, to eliminate competition that is keeping the ships of both companies half-empty, is carried through. The stipulation is not unreasonable, particularly in the present state of Atlantic passenger traffic. Competition between shipping lines has obvious advantages up to a point, but the French, American and German ships which ply to British ports do in fact provide compe- tition sufficiently. Both as providing employment and as creating a spirit of confidence in the future the completion of the Cunarder is very much to be desired. Whether she would ever completely pay her way is an open question, but it is not demanded of a shipping line that every individual vessel shall be run at a profit, any more than it is of a railway company, or of the Post Office that it shall never supply services that do not. individually show a return on the right side. The prestige a giant liner gives to a shipping company has a definite effect in popularizing the company's fleet as a whole.
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