I desire to move the following motion:—
(a) That the Seanad requests the Government to appoint a Joint Commission from both Houses, of not more than seven members, to report upon the most practical means of establishing a regular line of Transatlantic steamers between Ireland and America, with a terminal port in the Free State.
(b) Upon the most suitable ports for this purpose upon both sides of the Atlantic, having regard
(1) To their natural advantages;
(2) To the existing or prospective facilities they possess;
(3) To the cost of adapting them to the objects in view.
(c) That this Commission be authorised to negotiate with railway or steamship companies, harbour authorities, landowners, or others in a position to forward the above objects, with a view to obtaining reliable data as to costs, etc., for submission to Parliament.
(d) That this Commission be empowered, if they consider it desirable, to co-opt an additional member with special technical knowledge who is not a member of either Seanad or Dáil.
(e) That the Ministry be requested to make such provision as may be required to meet the necessary expenses of this Commission.
In introducing the resolution to this Seanad which appears on the Order Paper, I feel at a great disadvantage owing to the death of a valuable colleague to whom I am indebted for much of the information I propose to lay before you. I refer to the late Mr. Morley of Liverpool and Limerick, whose knowledge of shipping matters and position as a ship owner opened sources of information which would otherwise have been unavailable. We have spent hours in working out the problem, and hours grew to days, weeks, and months, and we have travelled thousands of miles, in interviewing Under-Secretaries and Chief Secretaries. Ministers and Prime Ministers of some of the Colonies interested, as well as shipping and railroad magnates from both sides of the Atlantic. When prospects were at last improving, the Great War extinguished all hopes of success, for a time at all events, and then Mr. Morley was called away by an inscrutable Providence, and I am left alone to carry on the work to which so much time and thought has been devoted. Lest any misconception should arise as to this resolution, if carried, involving this country in heavy, premature, and consequently unwise expenditure, I want to impress upon this Seanad that the object of this motion is exactly the reverse. It is to prevent the loss, failure, and discouragement sure to arise later, from the forcing of ill-considered, immature, or defective proposals upon the Government and the country by the force of public opinion. The country has been led to expect that one of the first results of self-government will be the development of its natural resources, and it undoubtedly expects the redemption of these pledges at the earliest possible moment, and if it sees no steps being taken will be apt to become impatient of delay.
Ireland possesses one obvious natural advantage of which no one can deprive her. She is the nearest point in Europe to the continent of North America. Her western and southern seaboard contains numerous safe and commodious natural harbours, as good as are to be found in the world. The approximate distance from any of these western Irish ports to the nearest port of the North American continent, Cape Breton, is 2,050 nautical miles. Halifax, Nova Scotia, owing to the excellence of its ice-free harbour, and the existing railway facilities is generally taken as a standard for calculation, and the distance of Halifax from the western Irish harbours is, approximately, 2,150 knots. There are, however, in Nova Scotia, several other excellent ice-free ports—Country Harbour, Sidney Harbour, which lie from 100 to 150 nautical miles nearer to us. Accepting Halifax, however, an Atlantic liner of the same, or, perhaps, lower speed, than most of the newer boats—24 knots—would make the voyage in 93½ hours, or 3¾ days.
Such a vessel leaving a western Irish port at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning—West European time—would reach Halifax at 9.30 p.m., same time or 5.30 p.m. local time the following Wednesday. She could be ready to sail from Halifax the following Sunday, and arrive back at her port of departure in Ireland the following Wednesday, thus making a voyage across the Atlantic each week. By any of the routes at present in use this would be an impossibility. From Liverpool or Southampton to New York the quickest steamers occupy from 5½ to 7 days on the voyage and they only make one journey out and one home each lunar month. From this it is evident: (1) that only half the number of vessels would be required to give the same service from a western Irish port to Halifax as are needed from Liverpool to New York; (2) half the capital would be involved: (3) less than half the working expenses for the same service, because the expense of feeding passengers, and fuel and oil consumption, wear and tear, etc., for from 2½ to 3 days would be saved. Some idea of what this saving would amount to can be gained by a consideration of the following pre-war figures:— The Chairman of the Transit Commission of Canada has placed the cost of working a bi-weekly line of steamers between Liverpool and New York at £1,804,400 per annum, and the cost of operating a similar line, between a western Irish port and Nova Scotia, at £600,000 per annum —a saving of upwards of a million pounds a year. The saving would obviously be far greater now. At first sight this might seem a somewhat startling statement to make, but the figures were prepared by gentlemen of great experience, well qualified to do so, and whose official positions should vouch for their accuracy. In considering this question, it will be necessary to dismiss from the mind all preconceived ideas based upon the usage of an Irish harbour as a port of call. The fundamental principle underlying this suggestion is that an Irish harbour shall be the terminal port of the line. With a port of call only, Ireland would lose most of the substantial advantages which have gone to the building up of such cities as New York, Boston, Liverpool, etc., into the important centres of commerce and population which they have become. When dealing with this proposal I have frequently been told, "Oh, but Ireland does not possess sufficient traffic to support such a line of steamers." At present probably not, but it must be borne in mind that neither Liverpool, Southampton, nor New York in themselves possess the traffic to support the numerous vessels which frequent their harbours. These towns and ports are simply the necks of the bottles through which the traffic flows; its final destination is somewhere else. And if we can devise methods by which the traffic, of every kind, can be more economically and more expeditiously conveyed to its final destination through our Western Irish port, and persuade it to come by that route we will have done a good day's work for Ireland, and one the beneficial effects of which can scarcely be overrated.
What inducements can we offer to passengers and mails? We must not ignore the fact that most of these are coming through or from London, and that many of these passengers are bad sailors, anxious to get to their destination as quickly as possible, and to be exposed to the torments of sea-sickness for as short a time as they can.
A Western Irish port can be reached from London in 12 hours.
|
Days. |
Hrs. |
Mins. |
|
|
Ireland to Halifax |
3 |
18 |
— |
|
Allow for transhipment of mails, etc. |
— |
2 |
— |
|
Train Halifax to New York |
1 |
4 |
— |
|
Total via Ireland |
5 |
12 |
— |
|
Record official time, G.P.O., London to New York, via South- ampton |
6 |
22 |
33 |
|
Saving in favour of Irish port |
1 |
10 |
33 |
If we can beat all other routes to New York itself by 34½ hours, or in round numbers a day and a half, what will the saving be to other places?
Many passengers and much mail matter would be going to other places beyond New York, and which would be as speedily reached from Halifax over the Canadian railways as New York itself, such as Quebec. Montreal, Toronto and Chicago. So that in addition to saving one and a half days to New York the time would also be saved of the journey from thence to the destination of from two to two and a half days. And this will hold good for all places further West and for Trans-Pacific mails, which must form a great inducement to Companies competing for such traffic to cast in their lot with us. Much heavy cargo is now carried at unremunerative rates as filling-up stuff, because all freight paid for is so much money saved. Why, however, carry it further than can be helped in these costly vessels, at a high rate of speed, which it is expensive to maintain? Liverpool is not the final destination of the great bulk of cargo landed there. It is simply a distributing centre. Such bulky low-freighted cargo could be much more economically distributed by inexpensive coasting steamers from the western Irish port which could, in most instances, carry it direct to its destination with no extra handling. These coasters would bring back the low-freighted outgoing cargo, and such coal for the liners as it was necessary to import. It must be borne in mind that there is transhipment at present in Liverpool for all goods consigned elsewhere, as the bulk of them must be. It may be asked why select a harbour in the West of Ireland for a terminal port instead of one nearer to the final destination of the goods. And why, if the advantages previously referred to are so apparent, should the Government of the Irish Free State be asked to intervene. The answers to both are plain, and they are two-fold. Such a route as has been outlined is not likely to be inaugurated by the enterprise of one Company or one State alone. It can only be made a success by the co-operation of several Companies (Railway and Steamship), and probably States who are in a position largely to control and direct the commerce.
(a) On the Pacific Ocean;
(b) In America (both United States and Canada);
(c) And on the Atlantic.
The tendency seems to be for the control of ports and shipping lines to fall more and more into the hands of the larger railway companies, and of the latter into that of the various States in which they lie. As it is unlikely that one single company can be found in a position to comply with the conditions I have indicated as essential some inducements must be offered to the various States and companies which would be affected to get them to combine and cooperate. Such inducements in this case might be:—
The guaranteed co-operation and assistance of the Irish Free State.
2. The control of thoroughly suitable ports on both sides of the Atlantic which offer the shortest sea-route.
I know from experience that it would be idle to endeavour to get such a combination together unless one was in a position to assure them that the Government of the Irish Free State regarded the proposal with approval, and were prepared to do everything in their power to make the working a success. In the long run nothing can deprive places of the geographical and natural advantages nature has bestowed upon them. The West of Ireland and Nova Scotia are the nearest points in the two hemispheres where suitable harbour and railway connections are already in existence. Between no other two such harbours would a weekly journey across the Atlantic by the same ship be possible for any steamers at present afloat. The combination which first realises these facts and secures their position in the most suitable harbour on both sides will secure a grip of the trade of three Continents, of which no rivals can in future deprive them. The further answer to the second part of this question —"Why should the Government of Irish Free State intervene?" is necessary; it is obvious that the people expect their Government to do everything in its power to foster Irish development along the lines of least resistance which nature has already provided; that the soundest way of doing so is to foster the creation of a number of thriving communities, especially in those parts of the country where at present they do not exist; that the assured success of the project I have outlined would, with absolute certainty, result in the founding of at least one prosperous city and centre of population; that such success can only be assured by the co-operation of several large companies in close alliance with their respective States. The growth of such alliances and co-operation is like that of a tender plant, which cannot be hastened without injury to the plant itself, and largely depends upon the atmosphere. I submit that we should endeavour to create or foster such an atmosphere with as little delay as possible, and it is to prevent the forcing upon the Government of spurious weeds whose growth is sure to lead to failure, disappointment, and discouragement that I have put forward the Resolution which I now beg to propose.
