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454 tons of trade annually. Since the armistice some of. the lines, which have begun to serve or announced their intention of serving Philadelphia, are the Royal Lloyd Belge, Cunard, France-Canada Steamship Corp., Brooks Steamship Corp., International Freighting Corp., Swedish Transatlantic, Charles T. Megee Co., International Mercantile Marine, and the Norway- Mexico Gulf line. P. Kleppe & Co., Inc. will operate the North & South Atlantic line, Purchases sending ships from New York to English River Plate. The line begins with oe ~ some ships chartered from the Amer- ican-Hawaiian line. The line is pur- chasing three 10,000-ton steamers now building in England, the first of which will be put in operation in December. The American-Hawaiian line, it has been announced, does not at present intend to resume its transpacific. services. Its steamers have been let out on charter, although there has been a re- port current that this line plans to let contracts for several large diesel-engined vessels. W. R. Grace -& Co., however, have announced that the Atlantic & Pacific line will be reinaugurated. The Luckenbach line, which planned an extensive service to Aus- tralia, is also said to be thinking of chartering out its vessels at least until such time as the conditions on the Pacific become more settled. The vessels of the Pacific Mail will sail the Atlantic, as the line intends to re-establish a service between San Fran- cisco and Baltimore via the Panama canal. The Fidelity Steamship Co. has been financed by Boston business men and intends to acquire a fleet of six or eight oil-burning steamers to engage in foreign trade. Arthur L. Crowley, vice president of the Coastwise Transportation Co., heads the new line. The first ship, purchased from the shipping board, is the StraTHNAVER. According to gossip the _ new line intends to absorb the Triangle Steamship Co. _Edward J. Dalton, who organized the Triangle, has been bought out of that company. This is inter- preted as the first step in the combination of the shipping interests. The Swiss Union is a third line mentioned as being involved in the merger. If the Fidelity-Swiss-Union-Triangle combination is effected it would have immediate control of 50 vessels in various trades with an especially strong representation in the Scandinavian countries. The _Interocean Navigation Co. has been incorporated at Wilmington, Del., and the Adolph Steamship Corp. has been chartered under the laws of New York. Oriental rates from the Pacific coast are reported weak with a fair supply Oriental of tonnage for what cargo is moving. Pp A scarcity of measurement cargo is Pater available from Seattle for China and Are Weak Japan and operators are haying some difficulty in obtaining the correct proportion of cargo to stow their vessels properly. There is an increasing number of ship- 'ping board steamers in the transpacific trade now and less Japanese tramps than a year ago. The Japanese are sending tonnage to the Atlantic and to other trades where conditions are more attractive. Con- siderable interest attaches to the new schedule of the shipping board establishing commodity rates to the Orient. Heretofore, these rates have all been based on weight and measurement and the innovation is causing some temporary confusion. It has also tended to weaken rates which are none too firm at $12 per THE MARINE REVIEW 'corresponding month last year. October, 1919 ton, weight, the measurement rate of $14 being now practically out of use. Cotton constitutes the greatest proportion of meas- | urement cargo moving through Seattle, However, none of this staple is now moving and it is believed that in the future the largest part of this move- ment will be from gulf ports direct to Japan, via Panama. Japanese lines are operating through steamers from New Orleans to the Orient and it is expected that considerable cargo that has heretofore gone by the combined rail and water route will now move entirely by water. The lumber market is reported weak on the Pacific. Tonnage is somewhat easier than it was and although lumber freights to Australia and the West Coast have nominally advanced during the last month, the present situation is weak. Exporters are holding off, hoping - for lower lumber prices and more reasonable freights. Heavy shipments of lumber and ties from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic Lumber and Europe have been made during M oeerient the last month and the movement 'will : likely remain active for some time. is Good There is a large amount of this material booked from British Colum- bia to Great Britain and it is to be taken by a fleet of new French steamers, .as soon as they are completed. With the resumption of direct and regular steamship service between Puget sound and Hawaiian ports, this trade has increased and is approaching the volume it attained prior to the war. The Hawaiian islands are large consumers of Puget sound lumber and this commodity continues to move in large quantities. The rate on lumber from Seattle to the Hawaiians in cargo lots con- tinues fairly firm at $17 per thousand. Owners of coastwise vessels are obtaining profitable rates on lumber and all available tonnage is kept constantly employed. During the last month there has been an increase of $1 per thousand in this trade, the present rates being $8 to San Francisco and $9.50 to southern California. A heavy increase in exports, particu- larly over figures of a year ago, is Boston's noted at Boston which serves as the principal shipping point for New Expotte fneland "and parts of the Middle Increase West. This improvement in out- ward freights, gradual at first, now is jumping ahead wonderfully, the first week of August showing the largest totals in grain for many months. Much of this grain goes to Liverpool and London while Glasgow, Leith and Sharpness are coming into prominence as cereal markets. During August approximately 1,400,000 bushels of oats were exported as compared with 450,000 bushels for the corresponding period a year ago. : Barley is moving in large volume--1,300,000 bushels for the month--while the shipments for a similar period of 1918 aggregated but 40,000 bushels. Large quantities of lard and bacon were sent abroad last month, figures for the former commodity being 9,000,000 pounds against 1,000,000 pounds for the There were exported 50,000 boxes of bacon compared with 1200 for the corresponding period of last year, while the amount of leather, 3000 tons, was nearly three times as large as last year. Few apples are being shipped and the movement of eggs and butter is almost at a standstill.