TRANS-ATLANTIC TRAVEL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 24 July 1925, Page 7

TRANS-ATLANTIC TRAVEL.

V.S. THREAT TO BRITISH SHIPPING. SELF-HELP MEALS. First-class liners at fourth-class in ices is the latest American threat to British trans-Atlantic passenger shipping. A conference of American liner ovrnhas iK’en considering the establishment oi' great floating hotels in which a traveller may make the return trip across the Atlantic for £25, including food. The present return rates on all the main Atlantic jines, British and American. are £36 third c-ass and £6O second class. The accommodation on the £25 liners of the future wil] be first-class throughout. Mr Edward Fi’ene. president of the International Chamber of Commerce, put the case for the floating hotel before the American owners of the great Atlantic .liners at a special meeting of the American Marine Association. The secret of the low fare will lie in the cafeteria, the popular American ‘■self-help” restaurant which is to make its appearance in London before long. In the cafeteria cverv diner chooses bis own meals, making them up of dishes at popular prices to any quantit.v he pleases. In the case of the liner cafeteria, which will replace the dining saloons of the present three classes, all the passengers will take their meals, as do hotel guests, on an equal footing. They will walk into the cafeteria, pick up a plate, pass down a long counter on which every form of food is laid out, pick what they please, and return to their places at the table. The American shipping magnates believe that the reductions in staff and culinary arrangements possible under this system and the filling of the ship fvitli passengers in place of the present lost, on ill-patronised third-class accommodation wil] make it possible to provide round trips to Europe for £2O, plus £5 for food. '