STATE-CONTROLLED STEAMERS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 304, 17 September 1921, Page 7

STATE-CONTROLLED STEAMERS

PROPOSED IMPERIAL LINE FLEET TO COST TWENTY-SEVEN MILLIONS By Telegranh- ProBS Association—Convrigbl (Rec. September 16, 9.-15 p.m.) ' z London, September 16. In connection with the scheme for a State-controlled steamship service to Ung up the Dominions with England, it js stated that the fleet will cost .£27,000,000, which Britain will raise, the Dominions paying 3J per cent, interest and sinking fund, and Britain 2J per cent, interest and sinking fund. The annual contribution of the four Dominions will be £630,000, and that of Britain £450.000. The Imperial Shipping Committee' 1 is reluctant tb examine details of the. scheme unless at the request of one or more of the Governments concerned.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. [The scheme provides for a fleet of eight fast vessels of .50,000 tons with high-power turbine engines, oil-burning, .with a speed of 26 knots across the 2t- - lantic, and 25 knots elsewhere. The accemmodation of the vessels would bo 100 first and 300 second-class passengers. The proposed service would bring Halifax within four days and Vancouver within 8) days of Liverpool, while the journey from Liverpool to Sydney, via Vancouver, would take twenty days and a half, and that to New Zealand nineteen days—a decrease of ten days.]