Atlantic Shipping

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21355, 24 December 1934, Page 12

Atlantic Shipping

A member of the French Senate has condemned the building of the [ liner Normandie, France's reply to the Queen Mary, as a foolish extravagance; and events may show that he is not far wrong. It is certainly a curious and disturbing ■ paradox that, at a time when the ■ Atlantic passenger traffic is at its lowest ebb f ■:■ 20 years, tens of millions of pounds are being spent in building luxury liners. At the end of the war Great Britain's possession of the Berengaria, the Aquitania, and the Majestic left her in a position of undisputed supremacy. Unfortunately, the commandeering of all Germany's best ships in 1918 aroused in German shipbuilders a determination to come back into the market with a spectacular coup. With the launching of the Bremen and the Europa the blue ribbon of the Atlantic passed out of British hands. The Bremen's tonnage was 51,656 against the Aquitania's 45,647 and her time for the North Atlantic crossing five days against the Aquitania's six. Italy followed with the Rex and the Conte di Savoia, the construction of the Normandie was begun at St. Nazaire, and the Cunard Company laid down the keel of the vessel which has now been named Queen Mary. The construction of the French and British vessels was stopped at the onset of the depression and later resumed with government assistance. Th<> Cunard Company has now announced its intention to build a sister ship to the Queen Mary at i cost of about £5,000,000. It may reasonably be asked whether this frenzied competition for a very faded blue ribbon is worth while and whether there is a possibility that any of these luxury liners will pay its way. '' If rumour is cor- " rect," says the " Economist," in a recent survey of the position, " one " heavily subsidised luxurious " foreign liner, not it is true in the "'Atlantic trade although on a very " important sea route, reached its " destination recently with six " passengers, and in holds that " could take about 20,000 tons " of cargo exactly 40 tons. Is this " a moment, it may be asked, foi "adding another 140,000 tons of ["luxury— or including the Norman-

"die 200,000 tons —to the already " glutted shipping of the world? " The outlook would be less gloomy if all these latest additions to Atlantic shipping were not subsidised by taxpayers and if the governments oi the world were less intent on policies calculated to lessen the volume of international trade. There is some comfort in the hint by the French Minister for Marine that an agreement is possible among the companies now engaged in the Atlantic trade.