THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1907. THE COMMAND OF THE ATLANTIC.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8370, 1 March 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1907. THE COMMAND OF THE ATLANTIC.

A sharp fight is in sight for the Continental trans-Atlantic passenger trade. Last month the famous White Star Line caused a sensation by announcing their intention of moving from Liverpool to Southampton, and it is considered that this is a direct challenge to the Germans, whose magnificent vessels at present monopolise the Channel and Continental passenger traffic to and from America. The Cunard Company have not yet definitely decided to desert Liverpool, but there are indications that they will do so. The Continental traffic has undoubtedly been diverted from English steamers, to a very great extent, by the splendid facilities offered on the German boats. The numbers undertaking the journey to Liverpool have gradually dwindled of recent years. The manager of the Liverpool office of the Hamburg-America line, an Englishman, declares that the White Star's sole object is to recover the highclass passenger traffic which has slipped away from British lines. He confesses, to his sorrow, that the British lines are not to be compared with the German so far as the passenger traffic is concerned. The Germans make their passengers more comfortable than the British lines do, and the very improvements in Cunard and White /Star ships are copied from the Germans. It is not to be supposed that the German lines will allow the White Star to step in without protest, and the competition is expected to be relentless. The fight will be doubly interesting if the Cunard come into it with their gigantic new liners, the Lusitania and the Mauretania, which will be the biggest and fastest afloat. The liners sailing from Southampton carry no cargo worth mentioning simply because cargo is not to be had there, and it seems as if the day had arrived when, between England, the Continent, and North America there will be steamship sez--vices exactly similar, although on a much larger scale, to those which maintain the cross-Channel passenger services between England and

France. Just as there are passenger trains and goods trains on the railways, ao there will be passenger steamers and cargo steamers on the ocean.