EVOLUTION OF THE FRENCH FISHERIES 305 



present he is not so guided. The motors for boats which 

 the French manufacturers are turning out are almost 

 exclusively adapted for the use of spirit, while the Danes 

 and the Germans are making petrol motors. As the 

 latter are protected by a law refusing the usual bounty to 

 the builder of a French boat fitted with a foreign motor, 

 spirit is actually protected in France. The two systems 

 will only come into real conflict when this law is 

 abrogated. Abrogated it must be, because the fisher- 

 man must be free to buy his experience and the manu- 

 facturer to alter his wares if occasion arise. Moreover, it 

 should be abrogated at once, for the Germans will soon 

 be placing petrol motors on the French market at prices 

 so low as to countervail the loss of the bounty. When 

 experience has delivered judgment, and when the French 

 factories have turned out petrol motors in abundance, 

 then, but only then, protective measures may be 

 advisable. 



Too much protection kills more than cats. M. Lumet, 

 in a recent article in the Ligue Maritime, has very cour- 

 teously criticised the ideas which I have just expressed. 

 He reproaches me with recommending strong measures : 

 " Let us use," he says, " what we French possess : that 

 is, excellent spirit motors. . . . My object has always 

 been to defend, by persuasion, the interests of two 

 French industries : the motor industry and our fisheries." 

 Then he demonstrates that " we no longer depend on the 

 foreigner for the petrol motor." But he also adds : " I 

 shall always see with pleasure the application of foreign 

 motors to our fishing boats, for I am sure it will con- 

 tribute to the transformation of our fishing fleet in a 

 direction favourable to its interests and also to the exten- 

 sion of the market for French-made marine motors." 

 Well, upon that point we are fundamentally in agree- 



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