NORTH ATLANTIC PASSAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 3 June 1930, Page 6

NORTH ATLANTIC PASSAGE

NO INCREASE FOR 20 YEARS. Addressing the annual meeting of the Canard Steamship Company, Sir Thomas Royden said the total volume of passen-ger-traffic crossing the'North Atlantic shows a slight increase in 1929 as against the previous year. For the sixth year in succession the Cunard Company had carried the largest number of passengers of any steamship company in the trade.. A detailed perusal of the passenger statistics for the.year ; discloses the fact that the first-class' and |tourist third cabin show an increase, while the other classes—cabin, second class,,, and third class—show a falling off. '. '"[. ; Although there is a slight increase in th'e first-class numbers it is remarkable that "the volume of; this traffic has not even'now reached its-pre-war';level. For example; last'year the :number of first-class"-passengers crossing-'the Atlantic was 199,738, but in 1909—20 years ago —the' total amounted to 202,921. With the addition of a number of new express steamers 'aii increase *in the' ■ first-class carryings might reasonably have ■ been looked for, but instead of creating a larger volume of business the additional express steamers have simply robbed the other steamers already in the trade".