The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

February, 1921 and since stand as per the accompanying table, with France in fourth place among the world’s shipping, including that of Great Britain and the United States. Without mentioning Austria-Hungary or Germany, Greece is thus shown to be the only continental shipping power whose fleet has diminished as a result of the war. It is a curious comparison. The increase in French and Italian tonnage is- explained to a great extent by the exenemy tonnage incorporated in their fleets of today, as well to some extent-by recent ac- quisitions built or purchased abroad. The actual composition of French View of the inadequate. docks at Havre, where merchan- dise is stored out-of-doors and passengers must be ferried to and from liners shipping on July 1, 1920, also is shown by the accompanying table. Of a significant interest to Americans is the fact that Japan has since the war moved to third in the list of the Europe's Merchant Fleets Measured in gross tonnage. es July 1, 1914 July 1,1920 Differences France ... 1,922,000 2,963,000 -+1,041,000 Germany .. 5,135,000 419,000 —4,/16,000 Greece 821,000 497,000 — 324,000 Holland .. 1,472,000 1,773,000 -+ 301,000 Italy .... 1,430,000 2,118,000 + 688,000 Spain ... 884,000 937,000 -++ 53,000 Aus. Hung. 1,052,000 nil —1,052,000 Belgium .. Saree 415,112 Sa fatenare France Shipping Status Steam and Motor Ships Gross Tons 1073 steel 2,593,609 145 iron 104,875 182 wood and composite 264,745 Total 1400 2,963,229 Sailers Gross Tons 98 steel 198,973 8 iron 12,157 252 wood and composite 70,835 Total. .358 281,965 Gen’) Total 1758 3,245,194 world’s merchant fleets, now occupy- ing place ahead of France, whereas before the war France held fifth place and Japan sixth. France today pos- -ica and the ‘West sesses 167 steamers of more than 5000 tons, Italy 155, Holland 110. Apart from purely cargo traffic the overseas passenger trade of France is largely carried on by the one chief transatlantic line, the Compagnie Gen- erale Transatlantique, and the Sud- Atlantique, to North and South Amer- Indies, and the Messageries-Maritimes to the Far East and the various local Mediterranean and Near East lines. All these serv- ices have been resumed since the war, though, as yet, none of the fleets has its full complement of tonnage. France lost 276,000 tons of passenger ships during the war and in exchange received but 100,000 tons of German shipping. ~« The repartition of surrendered Ger- man ships allotted to France was as shown in the accompanying table. French port statistics up to January, 1920, show the greatest movement of imports to the credit of the lower Seine port of Rouen—8,103,610 tons, nearly double that of Marseilles, gen- erally accredited the chief port of France, as indeed it would be. con- sidered except for the intensive coal traffic of Rouen, which may well be called the port of Paris. That French merchant fleet equip- ment and port facilities are not up to the demands of a great maritime na- tion there is no doubt. The-3,000,000 tons of French shipping afloat hardly THE MARINE REVIEW 75 serve to supply one-quarter of the trafic in and out of French ports. If French shipping has increased a million tons since the year of the be- German Ship Division Company Tonnage Compagnie General Transatlantique..... 32,944 Messageries-Maritimes .......e+eeeeee 29,226 Compagnie Sud Atlantique............ 15,262 Transports: © Maritimes... .< os eae cee 11,014 Chargeuirs: Reunis:s segs. cre ccelotiene cere 7,349 Societe Navale de l’Quest........... 4,901 Soc. General d’Armement............. 7,037 Weare: 2 GING rire, cis tiateie's ater ere bi sloe ie aa one 6,980 Navigation: “Paquet Joris ccc cree 4,771 Afireteurs:: Reunis!: + ..6% oss ware os eine + £8;830 Compagnie Havraise de Navigation...... 3,644 Compagnie Nantaise de Navigation...... 3,385 Chargeurs:: del Ouest: cee. ctstra'sie eters 2,945 Societe Maritime Nationale............ 2,912 Compagnie Aux, de Navigation......... 2,911 Societe Francaise d’ Armement......... 2,860 Compagnie des Chargeurs Francais...... 2,075 Compagnie Delmas Freres............ 2,075 Societe Lerous et -Heuzy............ 1,754 Soclete.< -Giltet? 5 oc wawowaes sae 1,724 ginning of the war, it is wholly be- cause it was needed. If, notably, the ports of Bordeaux, Saint Nazaire and Nantes have so greatly increased their Dock congestion at Marseilles, France’s chief seaport, due to lack of storage warehouse space and insufficient railway spurs added loading and unloading machinery, dur- ing the war and since, of a magnitude dock facilities and above all that their most optimistic partisans fever dreamed of in the old days, it was, again,- because they were needed. Havre, Rouen, Dunkerque, Marseilles and Cette followed suit and from the number. of French ships using these ports as compared with the number of foreign ships, as given above, it is obvious that port facilities are ample for the traffic of the moment. Such was found to be the case during the present year, though undercover ware- house room was often lacking, par- ticularly at Marseilles, where the quays today, pretty much as always, are en- cumbered with merchandise of. all kinds which will stand open storage. If anything has been made apparent