No. 20.
Commercial.
My Lord:-
BERLIN,
14th April 1897.
9216
(REGD 1 May 97
260
With reference to Sir Frank Lascelles' despatch No. 50 Commercial of March 5th, relating to subsidies to German Steamship Lines, I have the honour to submit a few notes on the proposal that is now before the Reichstag to largely increase the subsidy for the North German Lloyd Company, on the ground of their making a fourteen-day mail service to Eastern Asia instead of the present twenty-eight-day one. In view of this circumstance, the report of that Company on the working and financial results of the year 1896 will be of especial interest; it also mentions the question of a new subsidy.
The present offer is to establish a service, as mentioned above, with four new twin-screw steamers of a minimum speed of 13 knots in return for a further subsidy of £75,000, the Government having the right to revise every five years the rate of speed.
Viscount Gough,
&c., &c., &c.,