SYDNEY TO SAN FRANC-SCO IN 16_ DAYS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 13

SYDNEY TO SAN FRANC-SCO IN 16_ DAYS.

(rnoit otjk own correspondent.)

LONDON, April 17. The question of mail routes to Now Zealand and Australia is occupying considerable proroinenoe. Apparently tho Sues route cannot be covered more quickly 'than it ie u.t present, co attention ie directed to tho Pacific route. Interest, consequently, attaches to the announcement that from Juno 6th next the new veasele of the Oceanic Steamship Company, which aro capable of steaming 20 knots an hour, will perform tbe journey between Sydney ■ and San Francisco in IGJ days, and that, linked up as they aro with tho express boats of U*e Cunard andother Atlantic lines, and by the mail trains of the United States, the whole of tho trip from London to Auetralia can bo finished in n ?*' A eav * n So* from five to six days will thus be effected. It is understood that the subsidy which tho Oceanic Company already woeivee for tho service between Syd'aey and San Francisco will now be supplemented by tho Commonwealth Government. In_ Post Office and shipping circles the opinion prevails that the new eervioo, in conjunction with the views of the Royal Cfmmweion on the inadvisableness of too close &n attachment to the Suez route, will lead to a battle of mail routes.