Page:The empire and the century.djvu/96

 branches becomes one of the determining factors in the future of Imperial trade.

Then it is of paramount importance not only to trade, but to the whole future of the Empire, that we should improve all means of communication necessary to develop and facilitate transport from one part of the Empire to another. We noted in passing the tendency of distant Colonies to gravitate towards the nearest great industrial community, and it is easy to see how dangerous this tendency might become to Imperial trade, and even to the Imperial connection, if it were left unchecked. One of the ways to meet it is to reduce the distance that separates us from our Colonies by shortening the time of transit between us. The problem before us in the immediate future is to annihilate distance, to bring it about that produce can be poured from distant possessions into the home markets, and vice versâ, along the great Imperial trade-routes more easily and more rapidly than into markets that lie geographically thousands of miles nearer to them. Every time the period of transit is shortened even by a few hours the field of trade is widened. Something can be brought or sent which the few hours of delay, with its risks of deterioration in transit, made it not worth while to send before. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of communications to Imperial trade. The best hopes for the future lie in the development of direct telegraphic cables, great linking lines of railway, and, most of all, regular services of steamships between the different States of the Empire.

Sea communications, of course, stand upon a different footing from any others. Their maintenance and extension are absolutely vital. Attention has been called to the benefits which immediately accrued to both the export and import trade of Germany through the establishment of regular services of steamers between German and British colonial ports, and certain causes have been indicated for the probable rapid growth of