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GENIUS OF. NAVIGATION, TOULON, FRANCE The traffic of the high seas is one of the greatest elements contributing to the abundance and prosperity of a nation.-- (Col- bert, Minister of Louis XIV.) essentially. a Mediterranean and Near East proposition. Mar- seilles is the gateway to all French colonial possessions--to north, east and' west Africa, from 'Tripoli to Senegal, to the Black sea ports, the Echelles du Levant, Syria, Indo- China, Madagascar, Pondicherry, New Caledonia and the islands of the south Pacific. For this reason French shipping development of the future is bound tc be more notable in the Mediter- ranean than in the distinctive trans- atlantic and western trade routes. |e shipping is, in the mass, Less conflict will result with the com- peting forces of the United States and England, and eventually 'those of Germany, if France puts her major energies to the development of that trafic which passes to and from her shores via the Dardanelles, Suez or Gibraltar out of Marseilles. This its <door; Colonies Point Way to French Shipping BY FRANCIS MILTOUN Paris Representative, Marine Review great port is the Lacydon of the ancients and came to its first great prominence as a shipping center in the seventeenth century, when Colbert uttered his words of wisdom. Further proof of France's oppor- tunity in the Mediterranean is found in the intensively centered shipbuilding industries neighboring upon Mar- seilles--at Port de Bouc, Menpenti, La. Ciotat, doa. Seyne cand Poulon, Another factor for building and hold- ing this trade is the project already begun for a canal from Marseilles to the Rhone, the canalization of the Rhone. to byons, and. its ultimate connection with the Rhine below Bale, and~ with Switzerland via Geneva. Marseilles thus has fully 60 per cent of the whole area of France, includ- ing Alsace and Lorraine, tributary to its; port, fully." three (times the area of the sphere of influence of any other French port. This may be questioned and debated by the partisans of other French ports but on the basis of geographic and economic claims the argument can not be downed. New Trade for Marseilles Above all, this Rhone and Rhine canal project will sooner or later de- flect much Atlantic seaboard traffic to Marseilles and its satellite port of Cette. Lyons, the silk capital of the world, will practically have its Japan and China raw silks landed at Switzerland can land her foodstuffs on her doorstep by cargo transhipping appliances without the hand of man ever once touching them; export steel rails may be brought down the Saone canal to tidewater from Lorraine, and locomo- tives and metal manufactures may be shipped from Le Creuzot, Reanne and Saint Etienne without once even having to take to the rail. Marseilles is prepared for this trade with en- closed basins of 750 acres and wharf space, much of it under roof, of 300 acres. French ports rank in importance as to tonnage entries as follows: 1918 - 1916 1917 Marseilles ....... 8,938,652 7,681,883 6,147,183 Bordeaux. ii...38. 4,377,569 4,656,688 1,195,901 Saint Nazaire and Nantes: (i437. os 8,706,759 4,769,698 4,292,367 Rouen and Duclair 5,607,508 8,324,225 9,680,575 Lhe; -Hawe- 3.0 soe. es 3,668,414 4,941,579 5,462,017 Dunkerque ....... 3,885,969 1,549,088 3,930,947 Cette. oo 1,152,926 1,318,518 1,600,260 The great project for the develop- ment of the French merchant marine thus hinges on Marseilles, leaving the greyhounds of the transatlantic lines to Le Havre, Cherbourg and Bou- logne, the relatively small direct traf- fic with South America - and te Antilles to Bordeaux and La Pallice, a certain obvious freight traffic to Nantes and Saint Nazaire: and the coasting and fishing trades to the Breton, Norman and channel ports. The growing importance of the port of Dunkerque, the true enough north- ern gateway to the great industrial region of the north and east, should not be ignored. This port already owns the registry of some 50 odd deep-sea_ ships. The most recent manifestation of a regularly established French steam- 3 SHIPPING RELATIONS OF FRANCE ARE CHIEFLY WITH HER COLONIES AND AROUND THE WORLD , 397 SPHERES OF INFLUENCE DOTTED."