SUPREMACY BID ON SPANISH MAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 26, 28 December 1932, Page 3

SUPREMACY BID ON SPANISH MAIN.

MADRID PLANS TRADE PUSH. Spain is to make a great attempt to regain her old ascendancy on the Spanish main—not with the. warlike galleons of olden times, but with modern cargo and passenger steamers. Regular lines of maritime communication, states a message from Madrid, are to figure in the new naval policy. Five lines of regular traffic are suggested, including:—A monthly sailing from Liverpool, via Bilbao, Coruna to Panama, Guayaquil, Callao, Antofagasta and Valparaiso, returning via New York, and a line from Genoa, via Marseilles, Barcelona, Tarragona, Valencia, Alicante, Malaga, Cadiz to Las Palmas, Montevideo and Buenos Aires, with a minimum of fourteen to fifteen sailings each year. At least three new vessels will be built of not less than 12,000 tons, competing in speed with those of other countries.

A determined effort is to be made to raise Spain’s position to the level of other countries in the mercantile marine world. A purely Spanish service, linking all the important ports of Europe with those of the New World will compete with British services on these lines of traffic.

In connection with this programme it is interesting to note the prominence given in the Madrid Press to the probability that Spanish shipyards will shortly receive orders for war vessels from other nations, not yet specified.