The _Compagnie General Transatlantique_, generally known as the French Line, connecting western France, Northern Spain and the Canary Islands, with Cuba, Porto Rico, Vera Cruz, Mexico, and the city of New Orleans, was established in 1860. St. Nazaire on the Bay of Biscay in France is the headquarters of this line. Their steamers touch at Santander and Coruña on the north coast of Spain; at the Canary Islands, Porto Rico, Martinique, Santiago de Cuba, Havana, Vera Cruz, and New Orleans. Their fleet consists of 13 ships with a combined tonnage of 153,500 tons. The steamship _Lafayette_, of 15,000 tons, is equipped for the accommodation of 1,620 passengers. The _Espana_, of 15,000 tons, carries 1,500 passengers; the _Flanders_, of 12,000 tons, carries 1,250 passengers; the _Venizia_, of 12,000 tons, carries 700 passengers; the _Navarre_, of 10,000 tons, carries 1,000 passengers; the _Venezuela_, of 7,000 tons, carries 500 passengers. The _Caroline_, the _Mississippi_ and the _Georgie_ are each steamers of 13,000 tons. The _Honduras_ is a 12,000 ton ship; the _Hudson_ 11,000 tons; the _Californie_ 10,500 tons, and the _Virginie_ 10,000 tons. The seven last mentioned vessels carry cargo only. During August, 1919, the 7,000 ton steamer _Panama Canal_ arrived in Cuba from Japan, inaugurating a new steamship line between Japan and the United States, touching at Cuban ports. The line is known as the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, of Osaka, Japan. The fleet consists of 186 steamers plying between Japan and different parts of the world. The headquarters for this company has been established at Chicago, Illinois, owing to connections that have been made with the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. Steamers eastward bound from Japan will bring rice and general cargo, most of which will be consigned to the Island of Cuba, owing to the heavy consumption of that article of food in that Republic. New Orleans will be the terminus in the United States of the line. On the initial trip of the _Panama Canal_ 50,000 sacks of rice grown in Japan were consigned to Cuban merchants in Santiago de Cuba and Cienfuegos. The return cargoes will be composed largely of cotton, taken aboard at New Orleans, and with sugar and tobacco shipped from Cuba to the Orient. This line has begun with one sailing each way per month, all steamers touching at Havana for freight and passengers.