THE ALL-RED ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 265, 1 August 1908, Page 4

THE ALL-RED ROUTE.

■■In the House of Representatives last night the Prime Minister' again urged the desirableness of establishing the "AllRed Route." It is now some months since Mr, - Winston Churchill made a statement indicative of the early dbcision of the Board of Trade Committee set up to go into tho merits of this new service, but for some unexplained reason the report of tho Committee is still in uubibus. The House of Representatives does not appear to realise what Sir Joseph Ward's anxiety for an unnecessary and costly project may mean, to this country. For our part, wo cannot imagine .why he wants the service, unless, as is -highly probable, lib is eager to. have his name and the name of New Zealand associated with an Imperial white elephant. We have discusscd the question many times in the past, and we need not now do more than summarise the case against a headlong plunge by this country into a large annual expenditure, in return for which we shall receive only the cold satisfaction of knowing -that we have wasted our monoy Imperially. The service, in«the first place, cannot carry one ounce of cargo between Great Britain and Australasia: even Sir Joseph Ward seems to have admitted that, and a good deal of the All-llednosa consequently disappears. Further, the new passenger traffic will not be great, since peoplo who desire to go" to England arc not in a liurry' to get-there, nor eager to go via Canada, and the fact that there are more ships to. travel in. will not induce more people to travel. There are left the mail merits of the "AllRed Route."; What merchants require, is , a regular and reliable, rather thin the fastest possible, mail service, and they havc-a very good service via Suez as it is. Moreover,'as we showed on June 17 last, aT 25-day' service, between England and New Zealand by tho "All-Red Route " will be only'a'gain of two days over the 'Suez ronto to Sydney people, while it will actually take longer for a. letter to go to Melbourne from England than at presont.' .Australia has nothing td gain from the route, and tho. ■ Australasian share of tho'cost would havo to" be borne by this'country.. Of course, Canada desires the new service, since it is of great benefit to Canada, and will strike hard .at New York. In short, the All-Redness of the scheme pales .to pink'on examination, and finally to'colourlessness so. far as Now Zealand, 1 is concerned. The £75,000 so airily promised by the' Prime Minister .will be-little more than a gratuity to Canada. Sir Joseph Ward'l3 statement on the subject in June-last has been cabled, to the British Press, and it may bo..understood in England .as the; opinion: of • this .country as a. wholql lit is iqost decidedly not the opinion of New' Zealand, which, while it will gladly support, a.iiaval' ; subsidy, of £100,000, cannot afford to pay £75,000 a year for, the barren joy of supplementing an already existing All-Red Route on purely sentimental grounds. .■■'