HUDSON BAY PORT

Evening Star, Issue 20958, 24 November 1931, Page 18

HUDSON BAY PORT

FIRST WHEAT SHIPMENT Safe and speedy arrival at its destination in Britain of the, first' wheat to be shipped from a Prairie seaport, lias written a new chapter in Atlantic transport. Churchill, on Hudson’s Bay, has entered the list of ocean ports and an ancient dream of Western Canada’s producers is being realised. hi' a test shipment the steamers Warkworth and Farnworth were loaded 1 with wheat at Churchill, being the first ships to make use, of the modern elevator facilities provided there by the Government of Canada. They passed out to sea through Hudson, Bay and Strait. Next j r ear the port will be opened on a commercial basis. While Churchill is only forty miles closer to Liverpool than is Montreal, the.great wheat centres of Western Canada are more than 1,000 miles nearer to Churchill than they are to Montreal. Moreover, a radius of 1,600 miles from Churchill embraces a largo part of the wheat-producing area of the. United States. Churchill is connected bv railway with The Pas, Manitoba, and,there is talk already of a northerly route which would link Hudson Bay m a straight line with the Peace River country and the Pacific, and thus bring a vast, and rich region hundreds of miles closer to its overseas market. Churchill has a splendid harbour and terminal facilities, of tho most modern ■design. The town is controlled by the province of Manitoba,;the right qt citizenship being carefully regulated and closely guarded, and exploitation in any way will not be permitted. The Hudson Straits are blocked with ico for several months of the year, but the channel is protected by wireless stations and the experience of the Warkworth and the Farnworth has filled with confidence those who have contended for years that this northerly route to Europe was practical and of tremendous potential economic value to Canada.