ALL-RED MAIL ROUTE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6490, 9 April 1908, Page 5

ALL-RED MAIL ROUTE

THE IMPERIAL VIEW PAPER BY LORD STRATHOONA DISCUSSED. A NOTABLE GATHERING.

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright (Received April 8, 10.20 p.m.) LONDON, April 8. A meeting of the Colonial Institute was hold yesterday to discuss a paper •by Lord Strathoona, High Commissioner for Canada, dealing with the All-Red mail route from the Imperial point of view. Lord Derby presided. Among those present were Sir Reeves (High Commissioner for New Zealand), some of the Agents-General, and other representative Australians. Lord Strathcona defended the St. Lawrence route, and declared tihe channel would have a minimum width of a thousand feet- and a depth of forty foot, at the lowest tide, up to Quebec. Ho emphasised the necessity for Britain maintaining a supreme, up-to-date merchant marine, particularly in the Pacific, in view of the potentialities of trade. He did nob claim that the AllRod scheme would be self-supporting at the outset, but the route would create its own trade. He added that steamships built in England would provide good investment. Sir John Oolomh emphasised the coming struggle for supremacy in the Pacific. Ho said auxiliary cruisers would be useless without battleships. Admiral Sir Archibald Douglas considered there would he no difficulty in coaling, and there was ample accommodation at Fanning Island.

Captain Collins, the Commonwealth agent, said the Suez route must inevitably prove more valuable to Australia, 'but tbo Commonwealth agreed as to the advantage of an alternative route. Mr Reeves declared that the unforeseen success of the Pacific cable and the trade created via San Francisco constituted a' good omen for an AllRed route, whereby—though he admitted Australia relied upon the Suez service—Now Zealand and Queensland would stand to gain considerably.