“np
17)

OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

Austria-Hungary on February 23, 1907, passed a comprehensive
navigation and shipbuilding bounty law (see Appendix N), to be in
operation for fifteen years. The bounty is confined, of course, to
vessels in competitive foreign trade, and foreign-built ships are admitted
 to it only when launched less than two years before placed
under the Austrian flag. Among other requirements is a prescription
of the amount of Austro-Hungarian exports and imports which must
be carried. Under this law steamships built in the dual Empire after
January 1, 1907, are entitled to 10 crowns (crown=20.3 cents) per
gross ton for each of the first three years after launching. Beginning
 with the fourth year this bounty is reduced annually 5 per cent,
and beginning with the tenth year the annual reduction is 10 per
cent. Foreign-built steamships registered under the Austrian flag
before December 31, 1910, are entitled to an annual bounty of 7
crowns; registered after December 31, 1910, to 6 crowns. The percentage
 of reduction for age is, of course, the same. Austrian-built
sail vessels are entitled annually to 6 crowns for three years with
the same reduction for age. To receive these bounties a vessel must
be in commission at least nine months a year.
The law also grants a shipbuilding bounty of 40 crowns ($8) per
gross ton for steamers and 14 crowns ($2.80) for sail vessels built
in Austrian yards and of at least 50 per cent domestic material. For
engines and boilers built in Austria a bounty of 8 crowns per 100
kilograms (say, $1.60 per 200 pounds) is provided.
A uniform navigation bounty of 2 cents per net ton is appropriated
for all types of vessels in the foreign trade, under the limitations
already indicated. Still further, ships receiving these various -bounties
 are exempt from the industrial taxes of Austria.
The general bounty each year can be paid only to 15,000 gross
tons of steamers and 3,000 gross tons of sailing vessels. Foreignbuilt
 vessels are not entitled to any bounty unless the quota above is
not filled by Austrian-built ships. The shipbuilding bounty can not
be granted to more than 25,000 gross tons during a year, but when a
balance remains it may be carried over to following years. There is
no limitation to the amount of the navigation bounty, but with the
general bounty it can not exceed the following annual maxima:
1908, $880,000; 1909, $940,000; 1910, $1,015,000; 1911, $1,060,000;
1912 and thereafter, $1,120,000.
Under the general law the maximum appropriations for 1910 will
be 5,000,000 crowns ($1,015,000) for the navigation and trade bounty
provisions and 1,000,000 crowns ($203,000) for construction bounties,
assuming that 25,000 tons of Austrian steamships are built in the
year and making no allowance for the machinery bounty. These
provisions of the general law, however, are not the main reliance of
Austria for the military strength of its merchant marine. It has
specific mail contracts with the Austrian-Lloyd Steamship Company,
whose 60 steamships, of 196,292 gross tons, comprise a third of
Austria’s tonnage in foreign trade.
The Austrian Reichsrath on February 23, 1907, authorized a navigation
 and ocean-mail contract for fifteen years with the Austrian-Lloyd
 Steamship Company, by which a maximum annual subsidy of
$1,450,000 is assured to the company. In addition the Government