The Committee of Inquiry into subsidies to shipping have reported,
on the whole with a certain decision against that system. They admit that foreign steamship companies have occasionally benefited by subsidies, especially as regards high speeds, but they consider that except in very special cases, of which they indicate communication with East Africa as one, steamship lines do better without subsidies. The pith of their decision is, in fact, expressed in the following short clause of the Report:—" (4) That the competition of British shipowners with their commercial rivals upon fair conditions, without Government interference by way of subsidies, or by way of control of freights is more healthy, and likely to be more beneficial to the nation and Empire than a State-subsidised and State-controlled system under which the shipowner would have to depend less upon his individual energy and skill, and more upon the favour and support of the Government." That is masculine sense, all the more welcome because the idea of dandling trades into success has obtained a certain hold upon the public mind. Trades that require to be dandled are trades that will die.
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