London, Jan. 8.
Vice-Admiral E. A. Taylor, our, speaking on the Trade Routes of the Empire on Wednesday, January '7, at the United Services Institu-said that in modern times no nation stood alone and each was more or less dependent on outside sources for many things essential to their wellbeing. As a result any disturbance of. the flow of commodities could have a. most serious effect on the, economic life of the People.
"After tracing the history of the of the world, Admiral the capital of the British Empl was also at the exact geographical Jcentre of the land world, thus mak-ug it a most convenient centre for trade. Not only had the British people a great affinity for the sea, but' they possessed: excellent, har-hours and sea traditions, Admiral Taylor then traced the develop:
lays when sailing ships were more sea, communications from, the of loss at the mercy of winds and tides on unchartered seas up to the present. time when steam: vessels flake regular sailings: on regular Schedules and with every Kind of nautical instrament and chart to assist them, Admiral Taylor pointed out that Great Britain alone of all. nations was almost entirely dependent for ts very existence en the safety and security of its trade yontes, Before the industrial, revolution we were more oF less able to feed our-Ives, but now we depend on out ide sources for two-thirds of our a large part' of these raw mater fare essential to the carrying on of our industries, There were four mal sea routes to Great Britain ae the Atlantic to U.S, A., to the Wes! Indies und the Panama Canal, to South America, and vid the Mediterranean to the Far East "Over ixty per cent. of our meat and over '75 per cent. of our wheat had to be imported every year into this country, and in addition some 300, '000 tons of butter, 21,000,000 eggs, over 400,000 tons of raw cotton 650,000,000 gallons of crude petro-Teum, and 1,000,000,000 gallons, of oil, to mention a few of the principal imports upon which we depend, It was also a fact that 100 per cen the cocoa, coffee, copper, cotton, hemp, jate, maize,'sugar and teu, had to be brought to this country ing with the Singapore Base sphere of influence, Admiral Taylor pointed out that over fifty different Steamship lines used Singapore as a regular port of call. The imdensity of British interests in those waters could be imagined when one realized that on any one day in that area ships and cargoes to the value practised frequently in tubes and trains, among. crowds and queues, fand often in the big stores, This Seems a very petty form of theft Jand is not likely to be a very Temunerative one since women do Pot as a rule carry large sums on them, and one would imagine a haul of £2 or £2 would be the most the thieves could expect to get. In Jany case women are being urged to tell the police of any attempt on their bags. since all information will help to locate the thieves and put a stop to this annoying practice.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.