Foreign News: Not a Single Ship

Vexed tourists were still getting on & off transatlantic liners outside the harbor of Cherbourg by means of seagoing tenders last week. Still more vexed was the Municipality of Cherbourg which completed on May 1 a magnificent new $12,500,000 deep-water harbor and docks at which liners can tie up. Even the public celebration of Cherbourg’s achievement, for which sad-eyed President Albert Lebrun of France was rushed down from Paris (TIME, Aug. 7), did no good. Up to last week not a single liner had used Cherbourg’s docks, temptingly emblazoned with the arms of the City of New York.

Tender captains, chugging out and back to the big ships which anchor off Cherbourg, explained last week that the Municipality has set 30,000 francs ($1.176 at par) as the price of permitting a liner to dock, counts on the demands of tourists for an easy gangplank landing to force the steamship companies to pay this price. The tender captains charge only 6,000 francs ($235) for landing or embarking 200 passengers. Thus far tourists have been so scarce this year that no line calling at Cherbourg has been willing to pay the extra charge for the sake of being able to advertise “The Longest Gangplank In The World” as does the French Line whose ships tie up at Havre. Shipmen argue that the Municipality of Cherbourg built its deep-water port and docks with money collected from travelers as a port tax, should therefore feel morally bound to cut its rates for the comfort of travelers who still pay the port tax even when embarking or debarking on Cherbourg tenders.