SUEZ CANAL DUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 114, 17 May 1933, Page 6

SUEZ CANAL DUES.

Since Britain has a preponderating interest in the shipping trade with the East, and everyone knows of Disraeli's purchase of shares in the Suez Canal, there is a general impression that Britain has the final voice in the control of the canal. This is not so. On the contrary, though Britain holds about half the capital, British shipping interests are compelled to pay heavy tribute annually to a company of which the management is exclusively French. In these days of small freights the high canal dues are a serious hindrance to trade, and some lines have taken the extreme course of diverting many of their Australian-bound vessels to the Cape route. One British shipowner, in recently denouncing the policy of the Suez Canal Company, described it as "a parasitic growth on the shipping industry," and justified his comments by showing that the average net dividends paid by the company for the last four years had -been over 40 per cent. These swollen dividends threaten, if continued, to dry up their very source, for last year there was a sharp contraction in receipts. Although the operating costs are only half those of .the Panama Canal, the dues are nearly 25 per cent greater. It is no wonder that British shipping interests arc critical of the Suez Canal Company j