WHAT BRITAIN MIGHT DO. 105

than by the offer of a Royal commission to settle
once for all the possibilities and limitations of the
Hudson's Bay route ??
Apart from Imperial considerations, there are
certain definite advantages to be gained by
developing these steamship routes. In the first
place, there is the trans-continental traffic, ze,
traffic from Europe to the far East carried on
across America. Practically the whole of this now
goes through the United States owing to the far
better lines of steamers that ply from United
States ports than from Canadian ports. But it is
the desire of Canada to take her share in it, and
it has long been a saying there that the real
termini of the Canadian Pacific Railway lie in
Europe and Asia. As a matter of fact, the journey
from Britain to Japan vid Canada is considerably
shorter than it is vié¢ the United States, and will
be still shorter if the projected Canadian Grand
Trunk Railway scheme is carried out. In spite
of greater distance, however, the United States
route holds the field at the present time owing to
the superiority of its ships.
For the same reason the Transatlantic passenger
traffic is to a very large extent in the hands of
the lines sailing to United States ports, although

1 Why, for instance, when the Discovery returns from
her Antarctic explorations, should not the British Govern.
ment equip and send her or offer her to the Canadian
Government for the purpose of definitely ascertaining the
navigability of the Hudson's Bay ?