THE ALL RED ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 232, 24 June 1908, Page 7

THE ALL RED ROUTE.

BUCKSOD BAY. CHANCELLOR'S TONE FAVOURABLE. OTHER MERIT THAN PROFIT. til TELEGRAPH—PMSS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIOHI (Reo. Juno 23, 10.25 p.m.) London, June 23. Replying to an Irish Deputation which supported Blacksod Bay (on the west coast of Ireland), as tho port of departure for tho All Rod route to Halifax (Nova Scotia), the Chancellor of tho Exchequer, Mr. Churchill, admitted that the Irish routo had much that 'was attractive, but ho referred to tho necessity of constructing 100 miles of new railway, bosides improving the old linos to permit of a speed of 50 milo3 an hour.

*Tho Government had not, said Mr. Churchill, departed from their general attittito as expressed at tlie Colonial Conference. Ho admitted that the All Red routo could not be wholly defended on commercial grounds. It was a matter of high state policy, in which sentiment was a factor not leas important than commercial considerations.

Tho claims of Ireland from the standpoint of sentiment were great indeed. Ireland would bo .the last link in tho chain of" free communities joined by lines .of rapid and modern transit to the heart of the Empiro.

Under the Blacksod Bay scheme, as depicted by its advocates, tho train which takes passengers and mails from London will land them at Blacksod Bay by means of a train-ferry service across the Irish Channel. But- this would involve a large expenditure on trainferries and on a railway to link up Blacksod Bay with ' the present * Irish railway system. Thi6 latter is the railway, about 100 miles, to which the Chancellor refers.