during the World War. It failed in 1915, revived a little in 1917, but in 1918 was again less and the few foreign travellers were practically all Danish and Swedish. There were many of these in 1919 and 1920 and besides them, as before the war period, a large proportion of in- land travellers. But in 1921 the character of the traveller traffic changed, in that it consisted again of a great stream of foreigners, Americans, Englishmen and Hollanders, the latter due no doubt to the fact that in Aug. 1921 the Queen of Holland travelled through the tourist centres of Norway. In April 1921 a Norwegian State Railways Travel Bureau was opened in Norway House, London, which acts as a central office for tourist traffic to and from Norway and England. The big English " floating hotels " in 1921 resumed their visits to the westland fjords of Norway.
Telegraphs and Telephones. Telegraphs and telephones have been very thoroughly developed during recent years, especially wireless. The management of the State telephones is combined with that of the State telegraphs.at the head of which there is a Director of Telegraphs, who is under the direct jurisdiction of the " Trade Department " (properly "The Department for Trade, Sea Transport, Industry and Fisheries," established by decree of the Storthing of June 28 1916). In 1912 the Storthing approved a plan submitted by the then Director of Telegraphs (Thomas Heftye, born 1860, killed in the railway disaster at Trondhjem Sept. 19 1921, Director of Telegraphs from 1905, formerly a minister of State, senior lieutenant in the engineer serv- ice), whereby in the course of a few years by an extraordinary appropriation a telephone trunk-line would be constructed from Trondhjem to Vadso. At the end of 1919 the main line was ready northwards to Tromso and lines were extended for local telephone service from different points in East Finmark, with branch-lines to the islands and fishery properties and northwards to the regions inhabited by the Lapps. In 1921 theStorthing made an extraordinary appropriation, outside the usual construction budget, for district lines in the few parts of the country still without telegraph or tele- phones. In 1921 there was a telephone on nearly every farm.
The first two 1-adio-telegraph stations, S0ryagen and R0st, were opened in 1908 in the Lofoden fisheries district; in 1910 the Tele- graph Service took over from the navy the Tjome station in the outer part of Christiania Fjord, and Flekker0y, a little southwest of Christiansand. In 1911 came the more powerful stations, on the Rundemanden in the neighbourhood of Bergen, and at Ing0y, a little to the north of Hammerfest. In connexion with this, the Norwegian Government in 1911 erected a post-office and radio- telegraph station at Ankershavn, on the eastern side of Green Har- bour, Spitzbergen; later a mining company erected four smaller stations in West Spitzbergen, which are connected with Norway through this Spitzbergen central station. In Aug. 1919 a wireless station was erected at Ostervaag on Biornoya (Beeren Island), also by a private mining company. And in Sept. 1921 a station of the Norwegian Radio Company established mainly for daily weather forecasts to Reykjavik, Ing0y, and Fauske was opened on Jan Mayen. All these stations are comparatively small. However, Norway obtained one of the world's largest wireless stations (Marconi system) in the autumn of 1919 in Stavanger, intended for direct communication with stations in North America. Lastly there are powerful new stations on Tryvansh0iden near Christiania, Udsire on the island of the same name south-west of Haugesund, at Bodo in Fauske province, a little to the east of the town Bodo, and in 1921 the construction of a large station close to Trondhjem was begun. The stations at Tromso and in the neighbourhood of the head of Varanger Fjord have been taken in hand and with the Bodo, Trondhjem and Christiania stations will form a trunk system of wireless telegraphy over the whole country.
Shipping. Before the World War the Norwegian merchant fleet ranked fourth in the world with a total gross registered tonnage of about 2,600,000. In proportion to the population Norway's com- mercial fleet was greater than that of any other country. The war has essentially altered this position. Nearly half the Norwegian fleet was sunk and 1,200 non-combatant Norwegian seamen perished. Nevertheless the Norwegian fleet was in 1921 about as big as before. In the second year of the war several hundred thousand tons of new and old ships had already been purchased from foreign countries, and new vessels were contracted for in various parts of the world. It is calculated that between one-third and one-half of Norway's tonnage in 1921 has been built within the three or four preceding years. This new fleet was constructed without Government sub- sidy. The sudden and violent derangement of values in 1920, how- ever, brought many of the ship-owning firms, who had to replace their war losses at top prices, into serious financial embarrassment. Before the war only lo%of the Norwegian fleet was engaged in traffic with Norway; the majority ran on more or less regular routes between foreign ports. Regular liner traffic on fixed routes had de- veloped rapidly, but was stopped by the war. After the war the lost ground was quickly regained, and the tonnage owned by the liner companies increased by the addition of new vessels especially built for regular-line service. Several new lines were also started. The tonnage of vessels engaged in regular-line traffic was 130,340 gr. reg. tons in 1910, 298,275 gr. reg. tons in 1916 and 400,000 in 1920. The development of the regular-line trade was thus satisfactory, but nevertheless the total tonnage owned by the liner companies was in 1921 not more than |th of Norway's total ocean-going tonnage.
The greater part of the Norwegian tonnage was operated on a time charter (tramp) basis before the war. The war brought a change also in this respect and in other ways altered the conditions of employment. Norwegian ships were withdrawn from trades which had previously absorbed a great deal of Norwegian tonnage, as for example the trade between India and China, the West Indies trade, the Black Sea trade, etc. The British coal trade laid claim to most of this tonnage. Thus in the summer of 1916 no less than 159 Norwegian ships with a total tonnage of 173,119 gr. reg. tons were constantly running in the coal trade between England and France alone, and national supplies required three times as much Norwegian tonnage as was necessary before the war.
Over 26,000 men (sailors, firemen etc.) and officers (masters, mates and engineers) were in 1921 employed aboard the vessels of the Norwegian merchant fleet, and about 17% (more than 112,000) of the entire male wage-earning population (about 660,000) earn their living directly or indirectly by the sea.
Norway's maritime laws are in advance of the legislation of most other countries. This applies in particular to provisions concerning the crews and their conditions of work. An act of July II 1919, which came into force Jan. I 1920, established the daily hours of labour on board Norwegian ships in harbour at eight hours, in the tropics seven hours, between 7 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. At sea the work of the deck is divided into watches throughout the 24 hours in the usual manner. The work of the engine-room crew was, however, to be divided into three watches in the 24 hours to such extent as the number of men permits. By an Order in Council of May 31 1918 a manning schedule for Norwegian vessels was established, giving the number of mates, engineers and hands according to the size of the vessel. The two-man cabin system has also been adopted, and sanitary arrangements to meet the strictest hygienic requirements are obligatory.
In several Norwegian ports (especially in Christiania, Christian- sand, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondhjem) the harbours have been considerably extended and modernized. The question of establishing a free harbour has been discussed in all these cities and on June 20 1919 the Government appointed a committee to examine whether a Norwegian free harbour ought to be established and if so, where. This committee reported in Oct. 192 1 . It recommended the construc- tion of a free harbour, calculated to cost 31,000,000 kr., between two of the islands in the fjords near Christiania.
Water-Power. Since electrical power transmission opened the way to bringing great quantities of power to suitably situated in- dustrial centres, it has become possible to utilize Norway's greatest natural asset, water-power. It has been the foundation for the in- dustrial development of the 2Oth century in Norway. Though Nor- way itself lacks coal, she has come forward into the front rank of power-producing countries. No country in Europe has nearly as great wealth of water-power, not only in proportion to the popula- tion, but absolutely. And this power is the cheapest and most con- veniently distributed in the world. The total water-power of Nor- way is estimated to amount to at least 15,000,000 H.P., which with reasonable regulation and development can be utilized the year round, day and night. More than half of this power is admirably situated for big industries, as the fall of the water in many cases is direct into deep fjords, where power stations, factories and quays can be erected in ice-free, well-sheltered harbours, available for the largest ships. As a result of the sharp steep slope on the west of the country, the Cascades in the Westland and northern Norway not infrequently have a fall of 1,500-3,000 ft., often in connexion with large high-lying inland lakes, which permits of practical and effective storage of water and renders the regulation of the flow economical and convenient.
Of the 15,000,000 H.P. available the Norwegian Government owns about 2,000,000, of which about 75,000 H.P. is developed, and a corresponding amount of power is owned by Norwegian communes, but the rest are in private ownership, either of single persons or com- panies. About 1,200,000 H.P. had been developed by 1921, of which 250,000 H.P. are used to supply the general requirements of lighting, household purposes, agriculture, trade, small industries, tramways, etc., while about 95,000 H.P. are used in large industries. A further 250,000 H.P. were under development in 1921 primarily for public and communal purposes. The increase in the requirements of the country is shown by the following figures: in 1907 about 250,000 H.P. had been developed, in 1913 about 750,000 H.P. and in 1920 upwards of 1,200,000.
A portion of this store of power will be available for transmission to central Europe, poor in water-power. The scheme was in 1921 so far advanced that already the Governments of Norway, Sweden and Denmark had appointed a commission of experts to investigate the question of the transmission of power from Norway, through Sweden to Denmark. And from Denmark, it is not a long extension to Germany. The distance from Norway to Denmark and Germany is 300 and 450 miles respectively. The fact that in 1914 five times as many water H.P. were employed as steam H.P. in metal in- dustries and mechanical workshops is evidence of the part water- power already plays in the industries of Norway as compared with imported coal. In the textile industries likewise about 5 times, in the paper industry 10 times, in the foodstuffs industry 4 times, and in mine workings double as many water H.P. as steam H.P. are
