The Cunarder Launched The launching at long last of the
great Cunarder which has been the object of hopes, disappointments and renewed hopes may not unreasonably be taken as a sign of better times. We say " not unreasonably," for the monster ship is begotten of confidence and decision—that kind of confidence and decision which alone can command success. If the strictest tenets of conventional finance has been clung to, the 534 would never have received the indispensable Government support, and would have continued to lie, a derelict " folly," in the shipyard. But on this occasion at least the Government had the courage of conviction ; it prepared on its own risk to advance money for a constructive project which would provide employment in the present and is likely to earn profits in the future. And it insisted on rationaliza- tion in the shape of a fusion between the Cunard and White Star companies. If it had not taken this step there would have been despair on the Clyde, a sense of defeat throughout the British shipping community, and a perhaps irretrievable set-back to British prestige. But by taking the step, it has started a movement in precisely the opposite direction and has stimulated that confidence which breeds confidence. There are other fields—say housing—where the same treatment would be sound business.
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