THE ALL RED ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 62, 6 December 1907, Page 6

THE ALL RED ROUTE.

* ■ Tiieke is no word yet of a report ' from the Committee set up by the Brit- [ isk Government to go into the question : of an All Red link between Great ' Britain, Canada, and Australasia. ! This delay is not inauspicious, since ; it encourages the belief that the pro-. : blein is being , very thoroughly exam--1 ined. Colonial Imperialists at Home, i however, continue to keep the matter ,; before the public, and it is interesting ! to note that a feeling seems to be growing that the Committee will report-.-In • favour of the scheme. We printed a '. cable message yesterday which reported 1 Mr.' W; P. Reeves as believing tljiat ! , there are "excellent prospects" of a favourable report, and a further mes- • sage which we print to-day represents 1 other prominent Anglo-Colonials as • having delivered' speeches equally i hopeful in tenor. It was stated in ! October last that certain Canadian > capitalists, headed by Lord Strath- • oona, were ready to establish a line ; between Halifax and Liverpool for an • annual subsidy of £500,000, the steam- ! ers to be capable of making the jour- ; ney in four days. On behalf of the ' Canadian Government Sir Wilfrid ' Laurier promised to pay one-half , the > subsidy • if the Imperial Government ■ would pay the other. The All Red i scheme embraces, also, a' fast Pacific ■ service, at a cost that has been variE ously estimated, but which is generally i set down at. £450,000, of which Great ' Britain would be expected to contri* ' bute £200,000. On the Atlantic i side other schemes have been put • forward, one of them being • a trans- ' Ireland route to Halifax. To this scheme the chief objections are ' twofold. In the first place the Irish ■ transhipments would be a disadvantage t and a discouragement to freight, as ' well as to passengers, who will still ■ prefer the all-sea'journey to Canada, i as they did fifty years ago, when the ' abortive Gahvay-Kew York line was > established. The other objection is ■ that New York is hundreds of miles • nearer than Halifax to Toronto aide? • Montreal, and will, therefore, get the ; summer traffic. _ ' The most promising of the Atlantic I schemes seems to be that which ini volves a twenty-two-knot service be- ■ tween Liverpool and Quebec, and this ; the Canadian Pacific Railway is pre- • pared to supply. Five days across the i Atlantic, and four days' rail between i Quebec and Vancouver, would, with '< eighteen-knot steamers on the Pacific, ■ bring Few Zealand within twenty-four • days of London. Apart from the quesi tion of cost, it is easy to raise the ob- ■ jection to any All lied Route across ■ Canada that freight will continue to go by the old all-water roads. But it ' is not expected that the All Red scheme '• shall pay from the beginning. If the ' construction of a new road or a new i railway depended.' upon an immediate '• meeting of outgoings by receipts, half ! the existing means of communication • would still be things for the future. ■ "Routes, of course," it has been said, "are paid for, directly or indirectly, ' by the traffic which they carry. But i that is only one side of the question. Routes also make traffic." The All Red Route would assuredly create an i inter-Imperial trade far greater than ' we have now. At present the Empire commands all. nations to be at peace with her, but .the future is full of possibilities,, and, in tlie event of war with a great naval Power, the commercial - and strategical advantages of an All Red Route would be well-nigh incalculable. There is also to be considered the Imperial work which such an undertaking may do in assisting those schemes of immigration which seem to be more and more clearly indicated as one of the most important of future phases of Imperial development. That . the financial side of the question is 1 rather difficult it would be foolish to deny, but Mr. Beeves ,was voipiaa; the'

general public feeling here when he announced, as is reported to-day, that " New Zealand is prepared amply to contribute to the "cost." At the Imperial Conference Sir Joseph Ward strenuously urged that " twenty days to New Zealand " was a practical possibility. We are afraid that this is at present too ambitious for achievement, but a twenty-four days' journey seems to be quite within the limits set by financial prudence. With the Maori steaming along our coasts at just under twenty knots, an eighteen-knot or even a twenty-knot service across the Pacific seems far easier of realisation than it did, say, five year-s ago.