THE FIGHT FOR THE ATLANTIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 252, 22 October 1907, Page 4

THE FIGHT FOR THE ATLANTIC.

Apparently the records made by the new mammoth Cunarders have been too much for the equanimity of our German rivals. The Hamburg-American Company now intends to retire from the struggle so far as mere speed is concerned, and its next effort is to be in the direction of a huge vessel of enormous tonnage, but comparatively low engine power. This is very satisfactory news to all who have observed with anxiety the giant strides made in recent years by our competitors in the race for control of the world's mercantile marine. Looking back a few years to the formation of the great Atlantic Shipping Combine, we can realise now that it requires more than the temporary possession of almost unlimited capital for even so wealthy a country as America to oust England from the sovereignty of the seas. And though the vast and-, rapid expansion of Germany's seaborne trade has been one of the most startling phenomena of recent years in the commercial world, the fact remains that Germany is relatively a poor country with comparatively littld experience in the special forms of organisation that appear to be needed to secure control of 'the Atlantic trade. But it should be carefully noted that the Germans themselves still cling to their belief in State subsidies for steamship companies. For Herr Ballin, the head of the Hamburg-American Company, and one of the most influential men in the German Empire, has just declared that it would be impossible to contend against the Cunarders without Government aid. This may serve to remind our Free Trade friends that it is only by the help of the Government subsidy which the Cunarders receive that England's sxiccess in the struggle for-the Atlantic has been secured. When the subsidy was voted, the Cobden Club protested violently that the country was to be impoverished simply for the benefit of a single private company. Is it no benefit to England that her subsidised steamers have been able to beat down foreign opposition, and to distance their rivals so completely that even Germany thinks of giving up the fight in despair? Surely the withdrawal of the HamburgAmerican Company from the attempt to compete against British "greyhounds of the Atlantic" is a tribute to the value of subsidies that should appeal even to imagination bounded strictly by the I limits of Cobdenite Free Trade.