ghters, be provided by the
subsidized companies.[FJ] The steamers receiving the full subsidy must
be home-built, of steel, of over 3000 tons gross, and showing a speed of
at least twelve knots per hour. The rate was fixed at fifty sen per
gross ton for every thousand nautical miles, and ten per cent of this
sum added per additional speed of one nautical mile an hour, according
to the conditions of the route. Upon a vessel the age of which exceeds
five years the subsidy decreases five per cent each year till the age
of fifteen is reached, when it ceases. Foreign-built steamers under five
years of age, which may be put in service with the sanction of the
Government authorities, are entitled to half of the subsidy. The
construction subsidies were arranged in two classes, and each class in
four grades.[FK] The rates were slightly increased over those of the law
of 1896, and their benefits were limited to steel vessels of over 1000
tons instead of 700 tons.

The total appropriations for ship subsidies in the budget for 1911-12
amounted, in American money, to $6,845,995, of which $6,294,020 were for
navigation, and $551,975 for construction subsidies: an increase of
$478,387 in the former class over the appropriation of the previous
year, and a decrease in the latter class of $6,835.[FL]

The total Japanese tonnage in 1910 stood at 1,149,200 tons.[FM] The
_Nippon Yusen Kaisha_ practically owns nine-tenths of the ocean-going
steamships flying the Japanese flag.[FN]

* * * * *

China, too, taking on Western ways, is emulating Japan in establishing a
modern merchant marine. The Government is giving State aid to native
steamship companies, and subsidizing ship-yards. According to the United
States consul-general at Hongkong the Government is now (1911) to
furnish half of the amount of an extension of the capital of the Chinese
Merchants' Steam Navigation Company to twenty million taels (about
$12,600,000 gold), and thirty additional steamers of modern type are to
be built for service--ten on foreign routes, including a route to the
United States, and twenty on routes between Chinese ports; while a new
ship-yard is to be set up at Shanghai under Government auspices,
capitalized at five million taels (about $3,200,000 gold).

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote FC: Meeker.]

[Footnote FD: Meeker.]

[Footnote FE: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 282, March, 1904.]

[Footnote FF: U.S. Con. Rept., no. 316, Jan, 1907, p