GERMANY AND TRADE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 757, 4 March 1910, Page 5

GERMANY AND TRADE

INDUSTRIAL RIVALRY. UNITED STATES EXHIBITION NOT WANTED. By Teleeranh-Press Asaociation-CopyriEht. New York, March 2. Surprise, mingled with resentment, has been caused in the United States owing to the abandonment of the projected exhibition of American products in Berlin during the summer.

Tho abandonment is due to the German Government refusing its official countenance. Tho refusal is attributed to the fear of American industrial rivalry. MERCANTILE RIVALRY STRONGER THAN NAVAL. BRITISH MARITIME COMMERCE INVADED. • London, March 2. Lord Muskerry, Irish Representative Poor, addressing the Imperial Merchant Service Guild at Liverpool, complained that while so much attention wa3 focussed on tho great increase in the German navy, no attention was given iy the extraordinary increase in the Germai merchant navy trade.

"Trade is," he said, "slipping away from us in all parts of the globe and being annexed by Germans, who are our most dangerous opponents in the matter of maritime commerce."

[In Lord Muskerry, it has been said, tho mercantile marine has a special representative in the House of Lords. Prior to succeeding to the title in IS6S as the fourth Baron, he had seen sorvico afloat, and ho used to be one of those who frequently reminded the Board of Trado of tho evils of overloading and other similar dangers. It has been written of him: "Lord Muskerry is in favour of Fair-trade, and, above all, of recognising the national character of our merchant service and its importance as a force not only for the defence of tho British Islands, bnt as the only means whereby British troops can bo made use of outside the United Kingdom."] CONTEST FOR AFRICAN TRAFFIC. German and British shipping aro competing more or less keenly in many directions, and'.' particularly in the African services. • The following cablegram was sent from London, on February 3:—"Four' German steamship lines are offering to take cargo to British South Africa, from Southampton, Liverpool, London, and Glasgow, at ss. per ton below tho rates of the British conference lines. The Germans have started this in retaliation for the UnionCastle Lino loading steamers at Antwerp and Hamburg for East Africa. A fierce freight war is threatened."

The English extended service which caused these German reprisals was thus heralded in a leading article in "The Times": "Moro than a passing notice must be given to tho decision of the Union-Castlo -Mail Steamship Company to extend their servico northward from Beira to Kilindini (Mombasa) in British East : Africa. • Repeated debates in Parliament, and corrospondencd in our columns, havo testified' to' tho weakness of' British shipping in that region, and tho effect nf that inferiority on trade; and, though no one will imagine that tho extension of the service will work wonders, at any rate at once, the move is in the right direction, and is made without Government assistance. Briefly, the positiin is as follows:-Whatever viows may havo been cherished as to tho effect upon trade of tho now universal conference system, tho excellence of the British steamship services to South and south-East Africa has never been seriously challenged. But north of Delagoa Bay the story has been different. , It is true that a fine subsidised seryico through the Suez Canal is provided to ■British and German East Africa, and that wo have supported it liberally for the carriage of British official stores, and mails; but the line happens to be German, and the Germans are never slow to recognise tho functions of a shipping service m developing fresh markets. Apart from cargo steamers, a threeweokly mail service is maintained from Hamburg and Southampton to East i Africa, both round the Cape and through the.Suez Canal, so that the vessels of the German East African line completely circle the African Continent. Communication is also given from Marseilles by steamers of the Messageries Maritimes. On tho other hand, there is no direct British mail or passenger line through the Canal, but only a monthly mail service from Aden to Zanzibar by tho British India Company. The new proposal is that those vessels of the Union-Castle Line which hitherto have proceeded every month round the Cape to Natal and Delagoa Bay should extend their voyage to the British' East Africa Protectorate, ■ calling on the way at Beira and Mozambique (Portuguese territorv), Dar-cs-fcalaam, and Tanga (German East Africa) and Zanzibar. . It is pointed out by "The Times" that !™-M- ew °l th , e r Br J tish oa P ital sunk in buying the Mombasa-Victoria Nyanzn railway and the development of the interior the advantage to British interests or such a line is obvious.