NEW GERMAN LINERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 11

NEW GERMAN LINERS.

LAUNCHING AT HAMBURG. BUILT FOR ATLANTIC TRADE. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. LONDON. Aug. IG. The Norddeutscher Lloyd Line's new stoaraer Europa, of 46,000 tons, was launched to-day at Hamburg. She is the largest German vessel built since 1914. Her sister ship the Bremen will also be launched to-day. They arc intended to bo used on the transatlantic service.

These floating palaces will carry 3200 passengers and cost £3,000,000 each. A speed is expected of 26Jr knots, which is the fastest afloat, but if Germany recaptures the blue ribbon for the Atlantic crossing from the Mauretania, she will be unlikely to hold it long, as tho White Star's 60,000-ton liner, which is being built at Belfast, as well as the projected Cunarder, are expected to be rivals of tho Europa and Bremen. In the course of his speech at. the launching of the Bremen, the President, Marshal von Hindonburg, was enthusiastically cheered when he referred to the great losses of shipping to Germany under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which nevertheless could not, he said, crush their belief in the new German future on the sea.

Iu christening the Bremen the President said he hoped she would be a fresh tie between Europe and America. lie ended: "Let the Bremen bo a warning that only through united strength and concentrated will can Germany restore and reassert her former position in the world."