"[CF] Says Viallates:
"The system is calculated to secure regular and rapid postal
communication with certain countries beyond seas, and at the same
time to constitute an auxiliary fleet capable of being utilized
by the navy in times of war. The existence of fixed lines with
constant service is also a means of favoring the expansion of the
national commerce. The State obtains, moreover, in exchange for
the subsidy, direct advantages; the free carriage of the mails
and the funds of the public treasury; transport of officials at a
reduced price, and of arms and stores destined for the service of
the State."
Meeker:
"The greater part of the concealed subventions undoubtedly goes
to the shipbuilders, for all mail contract steamers must be built
in French yards and of French materials. These first costs are
estimated to be from twenty-five to fifty per cent greater in
France than in England."[CG]
There is no competition in the letting of the French mail contracts.
They go to four steamship concerns. For many years more than one half of
the total steam tonnage of France has been owned by these four
subsidized lines: the _Compagnie Generale Transatlantique_, the
_Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes_, the _Chargeurs Reunis_, and the
_Compagnie Fraissant_.
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