WATERWAYS AND EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 206, 20 May 1918, Page 5

WATERWAYS AND EMPIRE

GERMANY'S GREAT SCHEMES

FOR TRADE EXPANSION

!By C. J. Aubertin, in the London "Dailr NoW8.") J

Everybody knows bv this time that the Germans have reached Odeosa. Tew have noticed—or in theso days of small papors havo had a chance of noticing— that, according to several, German newspapers, the coining commercial agre&ment with Eussiii will contain a plan for the construction* of a great canal from the Baltic to the Black Sea. A very pretty scheme, it will I>b said, which will doTclop in about twenty years. Quito so, but taken ia conjunction with what wo already know of ' Gerinnny's belief in waterways for political purposes, it is a fact of great significance. It means th'af.oven if Germany <loea not hoiia to remain physically in Russia, she hopes to remain there economically. Just as "Mittel-Europa" is to be fiocured by the Main—Danube Canal to "Ost-Europa"— if one may coin a word is to be secured by Ma now project. Perhaps this sounds fanciful tn thosn who know only the toy waterways of •this country with tneir 80-ton barges. The roply "to this i ethat Germany has for the last forfy years spent millions on the improvement of her own inland waterways, with thit result—to name on}y a few instances—that the waterbnrne traffic nf Ruhrort increased 97 per cent, in eleven years, that of JfannhMm I.W per ceuf, in ten yeara, of Frankfurt 153 Her cent fin ten years, tmd of the Rivjr Main 102 per cent, years. And tin's traffic was noT filcnerl from the railways, as the railways in England havo filched the canal traffic, for during thpse years the railway traffic of Germanv increased by 57 per cent. The canals in; Eastern Germany are standardised for boats of Sμ tons, those in Western Germany for Tioats of GOO. and the former before the war.were being brought up to the GOO standard, which is about eighteen Times that of England. ! ■

Mittol-Eurbpa. Improved waterways' having brought' , such prosperity to internal Germany (I Bpeak, of course, of prosperity before the war, though doubtless her wator system has played a noble part in the actual conduct of the war), she is prepared to push the policy further, in agreement, naturally, with Austria. What she expects to accomplish in Middle Europe cannot be better summed up than in a statement made just a year ago by tho Austro-HungnriaiL Minister in Swit?erland, who declared that, the Danube and the Rhine, if united by canals, would created an organic and united Central •Europe.' And he added that the 'commerce of Germany, whioh might be rendered precarious by the results of the war, poseiblj prolonged by an economio war, would be replaced up to a certain point by the navigation and river commence of Mittel-Europa with the' Near "East.

The credit for- tho Main—Danube Canal has already been passed, which is Bot the same thing, it is true, a« the actual provision ol the money. Nevertheless, tho plans have been loug prepared, and ovj>r a year ago the King of Bavaria 'stated that the worS would T>e begun by the labour of war prisoners. Perhaps that has already been done. Tho canal is to be 410 miles in length, imd to cost .£3o,ooo,o<X>. It is to be electrically worked by means of a great power station on the Upper Danube, and it is to accommodate boats of 1200 tons.

"Perhaps the phrase "Main-Dannbe" does not convey much to English ears. It jneans, however, that in eight years, if the Germans are not too optimistic, there will bo a waterway for boats of 1208 lons from the North Sea to the Blade Sea. A scheme is also on 'oot for. the junction, of the Danube and the Dlbe. Hamburg is crying out for it on the ground that sho is the true German port which has suffered so much during the war, and that the KMne traffic jbenoifits only Antwerp and Holland. Vienna has prepared plans for a great inland harbour where a canal from the Oder is to join the Danube. The harbour, it has been officially stated in the "Nieues 'Wiener Journal," Is "destined for the transport of German coal towards tho East, whoro a vast market awaits it in place of British coal."

As Germany Sues It,

With, this vast network of waterways in our mind, let us glance fqr a moment at Eastern Europe according to the German idea of the map. A landlocked Serbia and a practically landlocked Bulgaria, Eumania (having lost the Dobxudja) in almost the same helpless condition—all these countries, and of course, Austria and Hungary as well, are by aneans of 'the Main—Danube connection to become the markets for the trade of the Rhineland; And now, by means of the new Baltic-Blaok Sea project, \Ukrainia, Bessarabia, Southern Russia (already with waterway connection to the huge basin of the Volga) are to be exploited in the same way. It is a grandiose scheme, but by no means unrealisablo, for all great waterways ultimately pay for themselves many times over. The trouble is to find the money for .their construction.

And leet, once again, the scheme should appear too big for realisation, let me indicate by one exifinple, out of a possible hundred, what inland water traffic in Germany really means. In England wo do not often hear of the-port of Ituhrert-Duisberg. Its annual total of tonnage is swelled by no great ocean liners making many voyages in the year, Almost the whole of ita trade is carried on in barges of 600 tone. It has (or had before the war) twenty-two miles of wharves fitted with every concelvalo appliance for the handling of goods, and its trafflo was equal to that of the port of Cardiff. '

In view of Iheso facts Germany's Bohemes assume a new aspect. Trade is mightier than the sword. Her military domination over Bussia, Serbia, and the rest of them may not continue, but when these great waterways aTo built she will at all events rulo them economically.