The budget for i@1 Laying passed the Japanese Diet the Depart ment of Communications has taken; steps to renew subsidy contracts for} shipping lines, comprising the! Shanghai and North China lines of the N.Y. K. and the O. &. K. for! their South American, South-Seas-Java-Bangkok-Tairen, and Vladivostok-Tsuruga services. A departure from former practice is to be seen in the decision to pay the N. Y. K. fees for carrying instead of a subsidy for its lines to Antwerp, Melbourne and Puget Sound, this having the effect of leaving open to variation the sums paid annually by the Japanese government to the shipping company. Increases granted in the subsidies to the O.S.K. tend to show that the Japanese attach the greatest im portance to the adequate development of lines between Japan and northern ports. Such must represent an appreciation of the true facts of the situation. but it points [to something more, Tndonbtedly Japan looks forward to hecomine the terminal point of shin-horn= commerce on this side of the Pacific, and the development. of lines to compete with those ronning out of Shanghai must. of necessity. be the first step towards the fulfilment of such a project.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.