11. TRANSPORTATION AND COM MUNICATION. Shipping.— We shall first consider the shipping at the ports of the river system (La Plata, Parana, etc.); and the magnitude of British trading interests in Ar gentina is one of the facts that will claim our attention immediately. The preponderating share of the United Kingdom in the sea-borne commerce of the Parana-La Plata River sys tem, as the 'South American Year Book' sug gests, may be summed up in a single sentence: the number and tonnage of British shipping in Argentine waters exceeds that of all the other nations put together. So important is the sea-carrying trade of the British flag, and so keen has become the competition of foreign shipping, that even so slight a fall in the relative position of British shipping as one-half per cent before the European War began was commented upon by British writers as a not altogether propitious sign. Taking the shipping of all the ports of the river Plata as a whole, the tonnage of the vessels owned by British subjects represented in 1912 no less than 3,557,700 tons, or per cent of the total shipping, but compared with 1911 there was a falling-off of 97,000 tons to be recorded. In the year last mentioned the British tonnage attained 3,654,700 tons, or 61 per cent of the tonnage of all nations. Germany took the second place with 661,400 tons, followed by Italy with 426,500 tons, and France with 400, 000 tons. Germany and France were credited with an increase of 16,300 and 46,990 tons respectively; the Italian flag showing the con siderable decrease of 140,300 tons, as a result of the utilization of liners as transports. Under the Argentine flag we find 78 steam vessels with 43,001 tons, and 9 sailing vessels with 7,052 tons. At the Atlantic port of Bahia Blanca, during the normal period before August 1914, the number and tonnage of British vessels nearly doubled in the short space of a single year. Practically all the important shipments here were made in British vessels, notwithstanding the efforts of Germany to secure a footing in this trade. Rapid travel
has become a necessity in Argentina as else where. Competition between the various steamship companies for fast services between Argentine ports and Europe has become keener than ever.
The efforts of the government to foster the Argentine coasting trade have accomplished, unfortunately, very little. As for river com munication, some progress is now being made and the communications with Paraguay by the Parana River are gradually improving. There is a service of rather light-draft steamers from Buenos Aires as far as Asuncion, while transit by water between the capital and Rosario, to which port on the Parana River ocean-going steamships ascend, is beginning to compete advantageously with the railways. From a handbook prepared by the Pan Ameri can Union ((Argentine Republic,' Washington, D. C., 1916) we quote as follows: "Austrian, Belgian, Brazilian, British, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swed ish steamers arrive and depart regularly from the ports of Argentina to all quarters of the earth. There are 50 lines with agencies in Buenos Aires. Regular passenger service is maintained to the various ports of Europe and steamers leave or arrive several times a week. To New York, while there are not so many steamers, opportunity is offered at least once in a fortnight for the traveler to take a direct steamer." Argentine official statistics show that since the year 1900 the total tonnage (entrances and clearings to and from ports of the Argentine Republic) have increased 124.2 per cent. In March 1917 a regular line of cargo steamerswas inaugurated between Japan and Argentina and Brazil.
Railway Postal and Telegraph Services. — Argentine railways have at least one char acteristic which distinguishes them from those of the other South American countries; each is part of a system designed to promote the development of the entire republic.