58

OCEAN MAIL SERVICE.

lines with the United Austrian Shipping Company. The contract is
for fourteen years from 1910 and carries an annual payment of
1,000,000 crowns ($200,000) for voyages once in three weeks at the
start, to be increased to once in two weeks in 1912. The Reichsrath
has not yet ratified it, but public sentiment favors it and ratification
is probable.

RUSSIA.

The navigation of Russia is exceptional in that it comprises as
many distinct phases as the navigation of the United States. Russia
has not only a coast on the Baltic Sea and on the Pacific Ocean, but
also on the White Sea, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean, the Black Sea,
and the Caspian, while the river systems of the Empire are important.
A large part of her navigation hn certain months is blocked by
ice, and communication between her Pacific ports and the Baltic and
Black seas is necessarily subject to Suez Canal dues. With a relatively
 great coast line in the aggregate, Russia is thus much less
favorably placed for maritime enterprises than smaller nations. The
merchant shipping of the country since Peter the Great introduced
the art of shipbuilding has been closely connected with the Government.
 The principal Russian steamship company, the Volunteer
Fleet, was created in 1877, not as a commercial venture but as a
military measure in view of possible war. Its capital was subscribed
by wealthy Russians, and the Government has virtually the control
of its board of directors. The amount of state aid thus always has
been considerable and is at the present time in proportion to Russian
steam tonnage. Russian subsidies are not in the form of mail contracts,
 although mail transportation is required, but are given for
specified voyages on specified routes. During 1908 they amounted
to 2,997,239 rubles (ruble=51.5 cents), or $1,543,578. The details
are given in Appendix N. Besides these, 650,000 rubles ($334,750)
was appropriated to refund the Suez Canal dues paid by Russian
ships. The vote for Caspian Sea navigation was $149,030 for the
White Sea and Arctic Ocean, $148,350, and for the Black Sea and
Danube River, $161,288. These forms of navigation are not within
the sphere of general international competition.
Since the war with Japan the operations of the Russian Volunteer
Fleet and the East Asiatic Company have been materially altered, and
some of their best steamships formerly employed in trade through
the Mediterranean with Port Arthur have engaged in the trans-Atlantic
 trade to New York. In 1908 the Russian Government made
an eleven-year contract with the Russian Volunteer Fleet Company
by which an aggregate payment of 6,905,000 rubles ($3,556,075) is
guaranteed, payable in varying annual installments for two voyages
a week out of Vladivostok to Chinese and Japanese ports. Details
of the contract are in Appendix N. For 1909 the amount allowed
is $412,000 for a total of 220,380 miles, or at the rate of $3.75 a
mile outward, compared with $2.30 a mile allowed under our oceanmail
 act of 1891 for steamships of 16 knots, which the Russian contract
 ships are required to develop on trial trips. Temporarily the
company has been allowed to employ foreign steamers of less speed
for a lower subsidy, but beginning with January, 1910, Russian ships
must be used.