GERMANY: La France Uber Alles

• Share

Because they are two of the mummest, most standoffish men in Germany, there was excitement last week when a warm handclasp and a brief joint statement momentarily linked those titanic shipping rivals, diminutive, roly-poly General Director Carl Stimming of North German Lloyd and tall, immaculate General Director Dr. Wilhelm Cuno of Hamburg-American.

Dr. Cuno had just landed at Bremen with Herr Stimming from the crack ship of the latter's line, the Bremen, fastest in the world. On the dock the two men exchanged elaborate, guttural compliments, for Herr Stimming frequently crosses in Dr. Cuno's ships—the idea being that one eye on the enemy is worth two on oneself. Stepping briskly into Herr Stimming's office, the General Directors barked their joint statement at a bristle-haired male stenographer who neatly transcribed it thus:

"It is categorically declared that a merger of the North German Lloyd and the Hamburg American Line is entirely out of the question, and moreover that such a transaction would not be advantageous. Neither company would have reached its present development if it had not maintained its independence. This independence the General Directors are determined to preserve, even against possible pressure from without."

Germans were saddened by this statement. It killed a popular rumor of long standing that the Fatherland's two greatest shipmasters would pool their resources to build the largest ship in the world. True, Germans built the largest ships of today— the sisters Majestic and Leviathan—which belonged to the Hamburg American Line until seized by the Allies after and during the War. But the French Line now has under construction a ship designed to be bigger than the Leviathan or Majestic, faster than the Bremen, and German hearts are sore that Frenchmen are about to worst them. The supership, as yet nameless, is being built with utmost secrecy as to exact details, in the largest French shipyards, Societé Anonyme des Chantiers et Ateliers de St. Nazaire, which had to be enlarged for the purpose by demolishing an entire block of buildings at the upper end of the shipway—a waste tut-tutted by thrifty Frenchmen.