PUBLIC
RECORD
OFFICE
ཟ། ཟ། །
C.O.
Reference :-
+885
177 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE! BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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or their presence are to sustain or to defeat the jurisdiction of the Crown over persons who are nominally British subjects? This distinction seems to constitute the same person a British subject by birth in the view of the English civil law, and to leave him an alien in the eye of the English criminal law. There may be persons against whom it is inexpedient that the rights of the Crown should be actually enforced in particular cases. But this is a very different thing from a formal declaration that there exist persons legally called "British subjects" who are not justiciable in the Courts of the Queen.
W. VERNON Harcourt.
No. IV.
Memorandum regarding Steamship Service.
(Communicated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, but not circulated at his request.),
At the present time the mail service from England to the East by way of Suez takes to Hong Kong 29 days. The time to Australia and New Zealand is proportionately longer. So far as general traffic is concerned, the high-class passenger traffic went by the Eastern route almost entirely, until the Canadian Pacific Railway Company began its steamship service upon the Pacific Ocean, since when a proportion of the business has gone by the Canadian Pacific boats. Information is to the effect that most of the British passengers are tourists, and it can hardly be claimed that as yet this route has made any serious impression upon the business traffic. The service between Great Britain and Canada is so slow that a considerable proportion of Canadian passenger business comes by way of New York. Many Canadians who have crossed a score of times have never been on a Canadian boat. There is practically no American traffic by the Canadian boats except an occasional tourist family who wish to make the St. Lawrence trip. It is to be noted that the present service upon the Pacific Ocean by the Canadian Pacific Railway boats is a 13-knot service, and the time taken is, from Vancouver to Yokohama, 13 days; from Vancouver to Hong Kong, 21 days.
As to Australia, the service is very much worse, the time from Vancouver to Brisbane being 23 days under best conditions.
At present Australia and New Zealand cannot be said to be in any kind of effective connection with Great Britain. Her business traffic must all go through, around, and across other countries, and Great Britain has no advan- tage whatever of position, but rather the contrary, in so far as preserving and improving trade relations is concerned. This is an important point when the present keen competition in trade with Continental nations is considered.
It is proposed to inaugurate an Atlantic service, to be carried on by 25-knot boats of the class of the "Mauritania " and "Lusitania," giving a service equal to the best upon the Atlantic. These boats will make a trip across the Atlantic from port to port in 4 days. From the Canadian port to Vancouver the trip can be made by the Canadian Pacific in 4 days, with possibilities of improvement. It is proposed to improve the service upon the Pacific Ocean by replacing the present boats with 18-knot boats, which will make the trip from Vancouver to Australia or New Zealand in 15 or 16 days, from Vancouver to Yokohama in 10 days, and from Vancouver to Hong Kong in 14 days. It is believed that this would necessitate two separate lines of boats, one for Australia and New Zealand and one for Japan and China. The Canadian Government will undertake to make necessary improvements in the railway services across Canada, and in harbour accommo dation. It will further undertake to give a subsidy of 1,125,000 dollars per annum for 10 years to the Atlantic service, and continue the subsidy at present being paid to the Canadian Pacific boats upon the Pacific Ocean.
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For the Atlantic service, it is proposed to construct vessels of the type of the "Lusitania" and "Mauritania." Preliminary plans have been prepared. The boats would probably be each of the following dimensions :--
750 ft. long by
82 ft. 6 in. wide by
60 ft. deep, with turbines of 55,000 H.P.
Such boats would be 25-knot boats and would be guaranteed to maintain an average speed at sea of over 24 knots.
To give a weekly service with such boats would require a subsidy of
dollars per annum for 10 years. Of this subsidy Canada is prepared to contribute one-half and Great Britain is asked to contribute the other half.
The Pacific service would doubtless he brought about through negotiations with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. Negotiations have not yet been undertaken with that Company, but it is quite well known that the Company is desirous of replacing the present boats with 18-knot boats, and it is not anticipated that any difficulty will be met in arriving at a satisfactory arrangement. The Imperial subsidy upon the Pacific boats would no doubt require to be substantially increased, and Australia and New Zealand will necessarily come in with substantial subsidies in return for the service which they will receive.
The Canadian Pacific service upon the Pacific Ocean has already been most successful in competing with the United States steamboats from their Pacific ports to the Orient, and the result up to the prosent time has shown that the Canadian Pacific has secured the larger proportion of the business offering from the United States and Canada to the Orient. While this is true, it nevertheless remains the fact that the service is too slow for a permanent mail route, and urgent necessity exists for shortening it. With the improvement to an 18-knot speed, it would be a short mail route, and there can be no doubt that this line would have a practical monopoly of the passenger service upon the Pacific from the American Continent, as far as it was able to accommodate it. The following table of distances and calculations, relating to time, will be of value :-
Halifax to New York Montreal to Chicago Halifax to Vancouver Halifax to Montreal Montreal to Vancouver
Liverpool to Halifax
Liverpool to New York
2,342 miles. 3,130
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Liverpool to Quebec, viâ North of Ireland and Belleisle 2,636 Liverpool to Quebec, via South of Ireland and Belleisle Liverpool to Quebec, viâ North of Ireland and Cape
Race.
2,712
"
2,801
"
Liverpool to Quebec, viâ South of Ireland and Cape
Race
2,833 960
"
"
841 3,662
""
"
758
"
2,904
"
4,283
*
6,271
"
6,824
"
-
6,355
"
4 days 0 hours.
4
20 "
"}
15 "}
"}
5
8 "}
-
81
0 17
"
Vancouver to Yokohama
Vancouver to Hong Kong, viâ Shanghai
Vancouver to Sydney
Vancouver to Auckland, New Zealand, by way of
Honolulu and Suva
-
The distance from England to Canada, 2,342 miles. A 25-knot boat, making an average of a trifle over 24 knots, will make the trip in- Ilalifax to New York, 960 miles, 20 hours Halifax to Montreal, 758 miles, 15 hours Halifax to Chicago, 1,599 miles, 32 hours Halifax to Vancouver, 3,662 miles, 44 days
The present service on the Pacific is an excellent service in quality, but slow in time. The Canadian Pacific steamers from Vancouver to Yokohama take 13 days. Add 8 days from Liverpool to Vancouver, and the trip is 21 days.