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398 ship line is that of the Transports Maritimes a Vapeur, a Marseilles company, which once again estab- lishes the pre-eminence of Marseilles as the most important gateway of French maritime commerce. This line has established a semi- monthly freight service from United States Pacific coast ports via the Pan- ama canal to Marseilles. The first steamer arrived at its home port in February of the present year, bring- ing a cargo of 550,000 pounds of canned salmon, 151,000 bushels and 10,735 sacks of wheat, 600 boxes of dried apricots, canned peaches, pine- apples and other canned fruits, 10,000 pounds of whalebone, and a consider- ablé quantity of barrel, staves. All this merchandise, 5522 tons, was con- signed to Marseilles importers. Be- s THE MARINE REVIEW bered 10,072, with a registered net tonnage of 11,101,424,. and cargo of 5,374,822 metric tons. These figures show an increase of 1366 vessels of 3,600,059 tons net and 267,562 tons of cargo over those of 1918. Ship construction figures as of March 31, 1920, give the following as actually being laid down in French yards: Gross Tons Bbe Steel SLCAMCIS (soos ccs sors cg cep e's eres QS 5 wood or composite steamers.......... 1,250 5 wood or composite sailers............ 1,263 MU ke eee eed Cee 240,225 This tonnage is divided into three distinct categories, according to the classic French formula: Gross Tons WE seek SOs 6 Above 25,000 See rss Seteecss 5000 to 25,000 Pe ae ek stele Below 5000 the other I Grand Armament II Moyen Armament III Petit Armament As a comparison with July, 1929 produced at home before the war and coal to the extent of two-thirds its consumption. A start has beey made toward making shipping needs known to.the public with the found. ing of the French Navy league, with 175,000 members to date, a small membership as compared to Ge many's 'legions of before the war which numbered 1,400,000. As for tangible signs of progress for the re-establishment of the French merchant marine, the government js to spend 35,500,000 francs in addition 1o the former budget for port works, lighthouses and _ light docks, etc. The French government control of shipping resulted in a-profit to the state of. 109,000,000 francs in 1919. 'This, of course, paid by the vessels, dry- was ATUL CHARACTERISTIC FRENCH. SAILING SHIPS IN THE OLD PORT OF sides this a miscellaneous cargo fur- ther consigned to various Mediter- ranean ports--Trieste, Greece and Alexandria--was brought by the same vessel. Present restrictions of importations apply to many products but hardly in a single instance to those which made up this first Pacific-Marseilles direct consignment, so that a new channel of foreign trade appears to have been opened and is likely to remain open. Statistics of 1919 arrivals and clear- ances of the port of Marseilles point plainly to its pre-eminence. Ships of all nations arriving and clearing num- chief Mediterranean shipping power, it is interesting to note that Italy's tonnage under construction at the same time was 355,241 gross tons, nearly 50 per cent more than that of France. National Sentiment Lags General interest in French shipping is difficult to stimulate among an essentially agrarian population with .bome grown ideas, the bucolic mind not realizing that it is now necessary for the country to buy wheat and coal and sugar abroad in far larger quantities than ever before, since the former and the latter were entirely FALVUUURUVUVOUUOUUUUUCVCVOUUUUUVUUOUCUCUUUSUCUUTUUGUUOCTVUVETOCTOTOOTE TCU MARSEILLES freighter--all indeed who had freight on board, and as the French radical press puts it was, in fact, paid by the ultimate consumer. The French prewar policy of g0v- ernment ship subsidy still operates under the law of April 19, 1906, but applies only to vessels of French con- struction. In 1913, these primes, Of bonuses, amounted to but 18,136,878 francs, .or little more than $3,000,000 at the normal exchange rate, SO the claim can hardly be made that French shipping is largely subsidized. This subsidy is decidedly not to be con- sidered a great factor in upbuilding the merchant marine of France. Far