The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1914. THE NEW GERMAN LINE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 73, 17 July 1914, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1914. THE NEW GERMAN LINE.

Latest advice from London indicates that the principle of the new direct service of steamships from the Continent to New Zealand ip admitted, and the negotiations now are merely to decide what portion of the traffic shall be allotted to the German ships. The loss to London will bo very considerable. In the past, about 100,000 tons of Continent transhipments have been effected in the Thames and have paid port dues there. Now this whole amount will be lost. Much of the cargo will be carried by German ships, and British ships will also, it is stated, pick up more of their Continental cargo in Continental ports. One correspondent writing in the middle of June remarked that, because all wars are costly and because the amount at stake is scarcely worth rate-cutting over, the German shipping lines which had thrown out an ultimatum regarding the Now Zea- \ land trade were engaged in preliminary conferences with’ the British companies concerned—the New Zealand Shipping Company and the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company being the chief. Another aspect is also given by the same writer, who says that the German comments on what has been said in the British papers indicates the determination of Germany ‘ to push her way into British trade spheres. This movement is merely an aspect of the State policy upon which the greatness of Germany has been established, and we may expect very shortly another characteristic utterance of the Kaiser in praise of his mercantile marine, in which, as is generally known, he takes scarcely less pride than in his navy. The Borsen Courier reminds English critics that if German lines invade new spheres it must he supposed that the present communications are capable of improvement and that German ships are capable of filling the gap. With regard to the New Zealand connection it is pointed oiU that, notwithstanding the finite active trade from Bremen and Hamburg, the German lines have only had an entrepot trade, at Sydney and Melbourne, with New Zealand. The Courier contends that German shipowners acted loyally towards the British in'inviting them to a eonfarenco rather than tutor' upon a costly struggle in rates.