THE SUEZ CANAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23033, 10 May 1938, Page 7

THE SUEZ CANAL

IMPORTANCE TO EMPIRE TRAFFIC LAST YEAR NEARLY HALF NET TONNAGE [from our owx correspondent] LONDON, April 14 The importance of the Suez Canal to the British Empire is once again emphasised by the record of the net tonnage passing through it during 1937. British traffic totalled 47.28 per cent, or nearly half. Of a total of 36,491,000 tons, the British share was 17,254,000 tons. Italy was the second largest user, being responsible for 5,866,000 tons. Germany came third (3,313,000 tons), and Holland fourth (2,800,000 tons). The figures are those of the Board of Trade Journal. The total tonnage last year was . 4,112,000 tons (12.7 per cent) greater than in 1936, and exceeded the total in 1929 —the highest previously recorded—by 3,025,000 tons (9.0 per cent). The share of British shipping in the total tonnage, after declining almost continuously from about 60 per cent in 1924 and 1925 to 46.49 per ■" cent in 1936, rose slightly, and in the last quarter the British proportion of the total was nearly 49 per cent. British warships and military transports passing through the canal in 1937 totalled 384 as compared with 395 in 1936. Mail boats numbered 3530, other commercial vessels 10,079, tankers and other vessels in ballast 3261. No fewer than 1135 Italian warships and military transports used the canal, against 2071 in 1936. , Maintenance oI Mail Services The maintenance of mail services is a factor of considerable importance in the Suez Caual traffic, and last year the total tonnage of mail vessels using the-canal was 1,600,000 tons (15 • per cent) greater than in 1936. More than half the increase was in respect of Italian vessels. - Of the five largest users of the canal, all but the British owed their positions to the regular maintenance of mail services, but among the other principal users only Denmark had a lai'ger tonnage of mail vessels than of other vessels with cargo passing through. Of the non-mail vessels carrying cargo, just over 60 per cent flew the British flag, compared with 65 per cent in 1936 —the corresponding proportions for Italy, the next largest user, were 8} per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. Of vessels in ballast using the canal last year, tanker tonnage showed an increase of 32 per cent, but other tonnage fell by 10 per cent; in the aggregate there was an increase which was shared by most of the principal users. Italy being a marked exception. Total of 698,000 Passengers The British share of the tonnage in ballast rose frpm just under one-half in 1936 to 58 per cent in 1937.. While the movement of mail vessels was, as usual, practically the same in each direction, sthe number of 'other commercial vessels with cargo was over twice as great from south to north as in the reverse, direction last year. Vessels in ballast' moved almost' entirely from north to south, only 116,000 tons out of a total traffic in ballast of 5,610,000 tons passing from south to north. The average tonnage of vessels using the canal in 1937 was 5500 tons, or slightly less than in 1936; the average size ot mail vessels, which largely influences the over-all average, decreased from 7184 to 6891 tons. - The total number of passengers passing through last year was" 698,000, compared with 782,000' in 1936. The decrease . was entirely in respect of military passengers on Italian ships, whose passage homewards transformed the net north to south passenger traffic of 41,000 in 1936 to a net south to north movement of 103,000 last year.