Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1938, Page 144

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LE NORD
the World Fair in New York 1939;
and on March 26th the Storting
unanimously granted a sum of
700,000 Kroner.
The month of May was a great
month for Norwegian steam-line
connections with England and
U.S.A.
On May 5th »Black Prince«, the
beautiful new liner of the Fred. Ol-
sen Co. for the service Oslo—New-
castle, was put in commission after
having been christened by the
Crown Princess. The Crown Prince
and the Crown Princess were on
board with a large number of au-
thorities, among them the British
Minister and Lady Mary Dormer.
The »Black Prince« is the largest
passenger liner built in Norway,
5039 tons deadweight, and a very
beautiful ship.
A week afterwards the new liner
for the Bergen—Newcastle service
came to Oslo. The »Vega« is a boat
of 7400 tons deadweight and the
largest and fastest vessel crossing
the North Sea (making 21 knots).
She was built at Trieste and has
proved a great success. On May
15th King Haakon with his Prime
Minister and two other members of
Cabinet, the President and prac-
tically all the members of Storting
went on board to proceed to Ber-
gen and celebrate the 17th of May
(Constitution Day), when a monu-
ment to Christian Michelsen, the
chief of the Norwegian Government
in 1905, was unveiled by the King.
And on May 20th the »Oslo-
fjord«, the new liner of the Nor-
wegian America Line, was taken
over in Oslo. King Haakon in a
speech called attention to the fact
that the Norwegian America Line
is the only transatlantic line work-
ing without subsidies of any kind
— and the line has constantly paid
dividends and grown to consider-
able economic strength. The Am-
erican chargé d’affaires congratulat-
ed Norway on the splendid new
boat, which is of such importance
to Norwegian—American commu-
nications. The vessel is one of
18,673 tons deadweight and was
built at Bremerhafen.
Imports to Norway in the first
quarter of this year showed an in-
crease of 9,582 millions of kroner
as compared with the corresponding
figures for 1937; exports showed an
increase of 15,293 millions.
On the other hand the month of
April showed a considerable de-
crease both in imports, 24,032 mil-
lions of kroner, and in exports —
8,633 millions. As a result the trade
balance of the country for the
first four months of 1938 showed
an improvement of 14,365 millions
of kroner.
In the second week of March Mr.
Paul van Zeeland was in Oslo, in-
vited by the Norwegian Industries
Organisation and the Society for