CONSOLIDATIONS AND COMPETITION.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15022, 17 July 1914, Page 9

CONSOLIDATIONS AND COMPETITION.

'•How can B"Hsh owri-._ be-i moofc this competition. _y ovjua __. ».-

most efficiency of service, by developing that commerce which must always remain to them, whatever developments occur abroad on the Continent —British trade —and, perhaps, by meting alliance abroad with alliance at home. The alliances among foreign companies and the growth of foreign competition have no doubt had much to do with the combinations that have taken place abroad. Combinations ..mong companies usually mean lower working expenses and greater powers ot defence. Perhaps the best example of combination anion. British cO-ioani.* hitherto has been the 'Royal Mail group,' comprising, beside, the Rcyal Mail Company, the Pacitic Steam, tbo I uion€___e, Lamport and Holt. Eider, Dempster and Co., and the Glen and Shire Lines. The group is concerned in the trades with Centra! Anicr_% and the West Indies, the >;ast and west coasts of South America, the east, south, and'west coasts of Africa, ar.d the Far' East Should the'group be attacked in one of its trade., it can retaliate not only in that, but- in any or all of the others. The proposed con.o'idation between the P. aid O. and Bnti .-India Companies—both companies mainly engaged in the Indian. Fur Eastern, and Australian trade, and botti po_seeing large financial reserves-—will al_o be very -nowcrful. "Tho co. soli'iations between shipbuilding conn?auie, »« eh as that __ announced 1:< . V.v.'k between Swan, Hunter, aid Wi-'-a . Richardson (Limited) an-1 Messrs Grayson'-, should also be effective in increasing at home the facilities fo. ship construction. Conntrie.- which once came to the United Kingdom for aii their shins are now tbemselvo- buildine great liners, aud the to bui .1 efficient tonnage .chea _v will count for much in the keen shipping fight that lies ahead. There is ho need'for di'-c<niragement. but in' o-der t>at the Brit'sh shipping and shinbuilding industries may maintain their predominant po-'tion. strong and c .ergeric handling will, in the immediate future, v .doubtedly be required."