348 EXTRACTS FROM DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR [March 1895. 



REPORTS. 



The Extension of the Canal System as affecting 

 Agriculture in Germany. 



In a report to the Foreign Office upon the inland waterways 

 of Germany, prepared by Mr. J. B. Whitehead, Second Secretary 

 to Her Majesty's Embassy at Berlin, it is stated that the exten- 

 sion of the canal system and the general improvement of the 

 waterways shares the fate in Germany of the improvement and 

 cheapening of railway communication, viz., it is first warmly 

 desired and supported by the agricultural interest, and after- 

 wards complained of. The reason is said to lie in the circumstance 

 that the cheaper rates of transport afforded by the canals do not 

 benefit home production alone, but give an equal advantage to 

 the foreign importer of agricultural produce, consequently every 

 agriculturist who is now suffering from foreign competition is 

 inclined to deplore further reductions in the cost of transport. 

 If Germany were still an exporting State as regards agricultural 

 products, the matter would, it is suggested, probably be different, 

 and any improvement in this respect might be welcomed. As 

 things stand at present, the agricultural interest cannot be said 

 to favour the extension of the canal system. 



In the general interests of traffic, canals are considered to 

 play a useful part in relieving the railways, the capabilities of 

 which are limited, from a large amount of heavy goods traffic, 

 and by preventing the railway rates from being raised to an 

 undue height. But this argument, although warmly maintained 

 by the partisans of the canal system, is assailed with equal 

 vigour by the supporters of the railways. It is maintained that 

 agriculturists could only be proved to gain a direct advantage 

 from the extension of the waterways if the foreign competitor 

 were excluded from the benefit, and even then the interests of 

 the different parts of the country would probably clash. 



The Westphalian coal and iron industries are naturally in 

 favour of canals, as they are sufficiently protected by customs 

 duties, and every cheapening of the rates of freight for ores, coal, 

 and iron is to their direct advantage. The agriculturists of the 

 eastern provinces would also be in favour of caDals such as 

 would enable them to bring their products cheaply to the 

 markets of the thickly populated industrial districts of the west. 

 It is hoped, for instance, that after the completion of the North 

 Sea and Baltic Ship Canal, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal, it 

 will be possible to send grain by steamer from East and West 

 Prussia, Posen, and Pomerania, by way of Koenigsberg, Danzig, 

 and Stettin, to Emden, and thence by the new canal to the 

 industrial districts of Westphalia. The agriculturists of West- 

 phalia, the Rhine Province, and the Province of Saxony naturally 

 look upon this prospect from quite a different point of view, and 

 both parties are apprehensive that the new canals will facilitate 

 the importation of American and Russian wheat, and will cause 

 a further depression of German agriculture. It seems that the 



