Irrespective, however, of all other conditions, satisfactory banking and shipping facilities are essential requirements of an extended commerce between the United States and the Argentine Republic. The establishment of an American bank has paved the way for the removal of many of the difficulties hitherto imposed on the American exporter, but there still remains the important question of ocean transport. The service of steamships now in regular operation between North and South American ports is wholly inadequate to support a rapidly developing trade unless the ships now running are substituted by vessels of adequate speed and capacity. To secure this object some provision would have to be made to cover the increased cost of construction and of operation of the larger vessels and also to overcome the difficulty of return cargoes. Practically all of the European steamships trading with South America carry full return cargoes, but owing to the reasons already given and principally because of the fact that the shipments from Argentina to the United States are at present limited to a small number of products, the services established between North and South America cannot compete in the matter of freight until they are placed on a similar footing as the European lines in regard to return cargoes, which, under existing conditions, are unavailable and must remain so until either the laws or the needs of the United States will permit of larger and more general imports from the Argentine Republic. The figures already given in the relation to the trade of the United States with the Argentine Republic show a considerable balance, almost amounting to forty per cent in favor of the former. Now let us see what are the proportions of Argentine trade with some of the countries of Europe. Argentine imports from the United Kingdom in 1912 amounted to $118,669,226, and her exports to $121,373,858. In the same year her exports to Germany amounted to $53,995,175, and her imports to $63,941,503. To France the exports were valued at $36,052,009, and her imports $37,618,578. To Belgium her exports totalled $37,258,225, and her imports $20,370,530. These figures speak for themselves and taken in conjunction with the other solid inducements offered by the countries of Europe in return for the benefits of a larger trade with the Argentine Republic, should form a subject for serious consideration in the effort to secure for the United States a proportionate share of Argentine commerce. THE CITY OF BUENOS AIRES